Sidestep
by Raggio
Summary: An explosion throws Sir Harry Potter and his wife into a slightly alternated timeline. If you like this idea or it inspires you to write your own story please DM me a link to it cause I would love to read them. :)
1. Chapter 1

I don't own Harry Potter, sadly.

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Cracking open one eye Harry tried to get a bearing on his surroundings; he couldn't see much except for the long flowing locks of his wife's hair across the tiled floor next to him, so clearly she was unconscious too. Worry for her made him focus more on getting his body to respond to his commands and slowly he managed to sit up despite his stiff and painful muscles protesting against the movement. He idly noted that they were both still in the same room of Buckingham Palace that he last remembered being in but right now that wasn't important. With a short gasp of pain, he dragged himself over to his wife and moved her dark curls off her face, "Mara, wake up sweetheart."

Mara groaned quietly and her silvery eyes opened slightly to frown at her husband of seven years, "What happened?"

He shrugged and started lightly massaging her arms to help with the pain she was likely feeling, "Last thing I remember is an explosion but seeing as nothing has changed about our surroundings I think I might be misremembering that."

She snorted and waved him off, "Look after yourself husband, if you're feeling anything like I am then you need to help your own muscles recover. I can look after mine for now."

With a defeated sigh he relented and started trying to massage out the numerous knots in the muscles in his legs while Mara watched him carefully. She sighed internally at the evidence that was before her, Hermione had warned her years ago about her other half's tendency towards self-sacrifice, his _"saving people thing"_ she had called it back then. Mara had spent nine years trying to break Harry of that worrying habit, and for the most part had succeeded but every now and then he did revert without thinking.

As she worked a particularly bad knot out of her calf Mara winced, "I don't think you're misremembering though love. The last thing I saw before blacking out was that wall exploding towards us."

Harry looked at the wall she'd nodded towards and frowned in thought. Looking at his wife who was far more familiar with the layout of the royal abodes than he was he voiced a hesitant question, "Isn't Her Majesty's public study on the other side of that wall?"

Climbing to her feet painfully Mara nodded with a frown on her face, "Yes. Which begs the question love of what exactly happened and how are we still alive?"

As he slowly got to his feet beside her Harry couldn't help but admire the woman he'd married; her black hair fell in curls to midway down her back and loose curls often fell to brush her long black lashes that framed her molten silver eyes. He idly remembered the first time he'd met her and asked if she was related to Madam Hooch, his old flying instructor from Hogwarts who had bronze coloured eyes. Thankfully Mara hadn't taken offence at his blunt question and instead had laughed while telling him that her eyes were a family trait of sorts.

Dragging himself back to reality he glanced around the small reception room again and frowned at the couple of minor changes that had occurred between earlier and now, "Sweetheart if one of the caretakers were in here while we were unconscious how likely is it that they'd just go about their business without raising a fuss?"

She quirked an eyebrow at him and answered in a deadpan voice, "Non-existent. Why?"

Pointing at the vases by the windows Harry coughed, "Because earlier there were tiger lilies in those vases but now there are white roses."

Mara blinked in surprise and realised he was correct; it always surprised her just how observant her husband was, she usually noticed things like that but it had been part of her training growing up to take in every detail of her surroundings but she had missed the flowers and Harry had never been trained like she had. Though he had survived the last Voldemort war and was known as an incredible seeker so she supposed that helped. Shaking off those thoughts she headed for the door leading towards an adjoining parlour where they might find someone to get questions off of, "Come on, let's see if there's anyone around who can give us a better idea of what happened."

The pair of them moved slowly due to their still aching muscles and Harry frowned, "Do you think someone might have set off a magical explosion?"

Looking over her shoulder in surprise Mara slowed to a stop, "I don't see how it could be. Everyone who would be willing to set one of those off in Buckingham Palace doesn't have the first clue about mundane explosives."

He shrugged, "Maybe but if you're determined enough anything is capable with magic and someone from the wizarding government might have witnessed one of our retaliatory strikes against them and tried to come up with their version."

Biting her lip in thought Mara mulled over what he'd said and then shrugged, "It still doesn't explain how the room is intact and we're alive though."

"Fair point. Let's go and see if we can find your uncle, he should have a better idea of what's going on."

Both couldn't get the worrying thought of a magical explosion out of their heads so when they opened the door to the next room and were confronted with not only Her Majesty and her Court Sorcerer, James Butler, but also Prince Philip and Mara's uncle, Sir Camden Greenbanks they stopped in shock. No one spoke for a moment but after a second James and Camden both pulled their wands and fired at Harry and Mara who dived out of the way of the incoming spells in opposite directions. Harry rolled behind a chintz for cover and stuck to shields as he had no wish to hurt his uncle-in-law and a friend who'd he thought was dead, "Camden what are you doing?!"

Meanwhile Mara was spinning and swaying out of the way of every incoming spell while retaliating with a series of low-level jinxes that effectively had James hanging from the light fixture, silenced, giggling and with his wand in her hand. Seeing the royal couple reaching for places she knew contained hidden pistols and not feeling capable of casting spells on two people she was sworn to serve she tossed James' wand at her uncle, who was still firing surprisingly dangerous spells at her husband. Taking a deep breath, she yelled, "Uncle what the hell is wrong with you?!"

The shouted question gave everyone pause, enough for Harry's next words to be heard by everyone in the room, "Who is wearing James' face? Did you let one of those bastards harvest him for parts to maintain the status quo?!"

Camden looked towards the woman who had called him uncle and motioned frowned, "Who are you two? And how do you know us?"

Before Mara could say anything two clicks of pistols cocking got everyone's attention and all eyes were drawn to the royal couple. While Prince Philip had an intense and unhappy frown on his face, Her Majesty's face was as impassive as she usually was, but neither gun wavered from their steady aim on the two newcomers. Queen Elizabeth's voice had a very distinct steel edge to it when she spoke though, belying her calm exterior, "Who are you two, who come unannounced into our presence and then attack our advisors."

While it might have been phrased like a question the words were definitely a command and the black haired couple shared a look before both lay their wands on the ground and stood to face their monarch. The young man spoke first, "My name is Sir Harry James Potter, if it pleases your Majesty. I am a member of the SAS, a commander in your Royal Sorcerers division and a Knight of the Victorian Order, by your own hand. This is my wife Mara Leanne Potter nee Greenbanks, a member, like most of her family before her, of your Shadow Hands Guards."

Dead silence reigned for a moment before Camden couldn't take it anymore, "What are you two trying to pull?! Harry James Potter is a nine-year-old boy and most certainly **not** a knight of anything."

Before Harry could wrap his head around that statement the Greenbanks patriarch rounded on Mara, "And as for you! How dare you claim you are my dead niece?! Mara died with her parents at the hands of those cowardly Death Eaters in the last war, two months before Voldemort fell so I don't know who you really are but you are no fam–"

" **Enough**. Sir Camden control yourself in our presence and wait until we know all the facts before rashly making any decisions."

Harry could feel Mara sag against him in shock at the realisation of what had nearly happened before Her Majesty had interrupted. Camden had nearly tossed his beloved niece out of his family! Everyone in the room must have felt the magic starting to rise as he spoke and if he had uttered those words then the fallout might very well have broken his wife. A lot of Mara's personal identity was wrapped up in her family and their personal services to the royal family over the years, to have that almost taken away from her so abruptly left an obvious effect on her for all to see. So much so that Her Majesty placed her pistol on the desk next to her and motioned for them to sit, "Be seated. We have a feeling that this will be quiet the tale you two have for us."

With a mumbled thank you Harry guided Mara to a seat on the chintz he'd been hiding behind minutes ago and held her in his arms, the closeness let him feel the minute tremors that were shaking her frame so slightly. He doubted that anyone else could see them but when he looked up at the person standing next to them, he saw the quiet understanding in Prince Philip's eyes. The prince had always been a surprisingly perspective man so it didn't surprise Harry too much to learn that his wife's near breakdown wasn't as secret as she might like it to be.

It was only after the prince moved away that Harry noticed the James look-a-like was once more sitting in his previous chair which was across from them. Feeling him stiffen had Mara raising her head and pulling herself together in a way that he admired and dreaded; her Shadow persona fell easily onto her shoulders and she shifted slightly away from him to be sitting upright by herself with a calm and relaxed exterior shown to the room. It was a small comfort to Harry that she still stayed close enough to touch him if either of them needed it because he had a feeling that whatever had happened to them was far worse than what they'd first thought.

Once everyone was seated the queen looked between them and focused briefly on Mara before shifted her attention to Harry, "Mister Potter, as I have no memory of appointing you to anything I will not be referring to you by any title at this time. If we can be shown that you are indeed who you say you are then we _may_ once more bestow that honour upon you. For now, I would like to hear your story as to how you managed to gate-crash a private meeting of ours."

Harry nodded and hid a wince, he was surprised at how much this cold reception from his queen hurt him, he hadn't realised how much he'd enjoyed the easy bantering relationship he'd shared with Her Majesty in private until just now. Clearing his throat, he glanced at Mara out of the corner of his eye and started to talk once he saw her tiny nod of encouragement, "After I defeated Voldemort for the second time I thought the wizarding world would finally be a place I could live in peace. That wasn't the case as the Death Eaters that had survived the second war managed to wriggle, threaten and bribe their way out of just sentences and once more took up positions of power within the government. Despite all the death and loss nothing had really changed from when I'd first re-entered the magical world at the age of 11. My best friend was widely hailed as the brightest witch of her age but because she was a mundane born witch she was treated like a second class citizen and expected to be nothing but a broodmare for some pureblood, entitled, egotistical, untrustworthy…"

The soft fingers of his wife pressed lightly against the back of his hand brought Harry up short and he flushed in embarrassment at the barely hidden amusement he could see on faces in front of him; Prince Philip in particular seemed to find his lack of decorum entertaining. Clearing his throat Harry continued to speak, "Long story short after some rather pointed arguments she left the wizarding world and returned to life as a mundane person. She took a make-up course in the exams and classes she'd missed while at Hogwarts and managed to get accepted to Oxford despite her lack of records between the ages of 11 and 18. There she met Mara."

Here he looked at his wife and all but begged her to speak, she nodded resignedly and fixed her gaze firmly on Her Majesty, determinedly not looking at the uncle who'd nearly disowned her minutes ago, "Hermione and I became friends, to the point where she even spent Christmas with us here after I found out that her parents had died in a car crash in Australia. It was during that holiday that my uncle let the cat out of the bag about us being magical, I was shocked until I realised that he knew exactly who my friend was, a hero from the second Voldemort war. After that we were inseparable, she wanted to know everything about my schooling as I'd never set foot in Hogwarts and I was naturally curious about the castle. Three months later she introduced me to Harry."

Harry took over the story here, "Mara and I quickly hit it off and I started spending more and more time in the mundane world, the wizarding world had been slowly getting more unbearable for me. When Mara mentioned that the SAS had a magical division I decided that was what I wanted to do with my life. I'd attempted to become an auror in the rebuilt magical government but between the corrupt officials in charge, the red tape and the general disregard for anything that the wizarding world didn't see as worthwhile, meaning anything not invented by or useful to a pureblood I quit fairly quickly. Once I joined the SAS however I knew I'd made the right decision, it was also there that I found out about your Shadow Hands and how Mara's family had served yours faithfully for generations in a number of different roles."

Before he could say anything to get into trouble Mara took over again, "Once he'd proved himself a faithful subject to your Majesty my uncle decided to teach him how to better serve you and that is how he came to your attention and received a knighthood from you Your Majesty. Over the years he has served as a go between for your public and more secret forces, even getting some training in espionage along the way, though he sucks at it."

"Only according to you sweetheart and only because your standards are so high."

The snort of amusement from James brought Harry's attention back to the matter at hand before he and Mara could get carried away, "Everything was going fine until two years ago. After I had left the wizarding world I hadn't bothered to keep up with what was happening there, I figured it would only annoy me so I cut all but a couple of ties. It reared its ugly head though in a way I couldn't ignore."

When he paused and squeezed his eyes shut in pain Mara put her hand on his and turned to the room to continue the story, "On September 1st Harry's godson was due to start at Hogwarts, he'd been raised by his grandmother and she'd elected to stay in the wizarding world for the most part. We got word from her the next morning that the Hogwarts Express that had been carrying Teddy to school for the first time was attacked. Four hundred and sixty-eight children of various ages were killed that day, the only ones spared where pureblood children whose parents were supporters of the magical government. The public backlash for the government was shocking but their response was even worse in my eyes; they released a statement saying that the attack was by a terrorist organisation that they had been hunting quietly for a time. The Cult of Voldemort is nothing but a smokescreen to mask the government approved actions, both inside and outside of the wizarding world."

Harry had managed to pull himself together but the shine in his eyes wasn't fooling anyone in the room, "That's how I ended up a commander of the Royal Sorcerers. I was tasked with bringing down the wizarding government with as little damage as possible to ordinary citizens. It's been a blood bath, there have been several attempts against the royal family and huge numbers of people have fled to other countries to try and escape the fallout, London's population alone has nearly halved in the last two years. Six months ago we lost James and three others to a particularly vicious group of _cultists_ and Mara had taken over the role of Court Sorcerer in order to keep a trained bodyguard next to your Majesty at all times."

The queen interrupted before he could continue, "We take it having the Court Sorcerer with us at all times had become a necessity?"

Mara answered with a nod, "Yes your Majesty, twice in the six months since I've held the position have I had to apparate you out of dangerous situations and a number of assassination attempts have been thwarted only because you are accompanied everywhere."

The silence after that statement gave everyone time to come to terms with what the two newcomers were saying; Queen Elizabeth was inclined to believe them, she'd learned long ago how to tell when a person was lying and both of the people before her clearly believed everything they had just said. Prince Philip thought they were probably telling the truth simply because their story was so fanciful there's no way someone trying to con them would have come up with it. Camden Greenbanks was trying to wrap his head around the fact that the longer he looked at the young woman before him the more she looked like his late brother's wife, if this truly was his niece returned somehow then he was very relieved that his queen had stopped him for making such a rash decision earlier. And the resident Court Sorcerer was attempting to come to terms with the fact that according to these two he was dead and his replacement was sitting before him, it was so surreal that he was a little surprised he hadn't passed out yet.

Gathering his courage James asked them a question, "What is the last thing you two remember before you got here?"

Swallowing his immediate reaction to jump down the imposters throat Harry fought hard to maintain a calm tone, "An explosion. We were just in the next room and everything around us exploded."

James sat back in thought, "Huh."

When he didn't say anything else Harry had to fight to not growl at him, "And that means what exactly?"

"I don't know yet but I have a theory, it's pretty far-fetched though."

Before Harry could snap at him the queen spoke, "Please share your theory Mister Butler, we are most curious."

Blushing at the gentle reprimand James leaned forward eagerly, "There are some very powerful wards laid over Buckingham Palace, it's why all those bombs dropped on it during World War 2 didn't manage to level it. For something to literally explode everything around you it would need to be inside the wards and very powerful. Theoretically an internal magical explosion could…mesh, for lack of a better word, with some of the protection wards of the palace; it's possible that the wards moved you two somewhere safe. That just happened to be an intact version of the palace."

The obvious scholarly enjoyment that surrounded James finally convinced Harry that this was indeed the friend that they had lost and not just an imposter, but that led to an even more worrying conclusion, "Are you suggesting that we've travelled back in time?"

Shrugging James nearly bounced in his seat, "It does seem to be the most obvious answer, after all Harry Potter is only nine now but you say you are him and I'm inclined to believe you."

"You are?!"

"Well you obviously believe it and you do have the Potter hair along with the green eyes so it's not inconceivable that is who you are."

Mara interrupted before the two could get carried away, "Time travel only explains how the palace is intact and you're alive, it does nothing to explain how I apparently died with my parents instead. The night my parents were killed I had been staying with my uncle but clearly that didn't happen as far as he is concerned."

For the first time since Camden denied her as his niece Mara looked at him with a cold expression, "There seem to be a number of small variations from what we know to be true so please James, tell me what your theory is for that."

"Alternate reality."

All eyes snapped to Harry and he ducked his head a little in embarrassment, "It was one of the theories Hermione liked to talk about, how every decision can change the outcome of what happens next and even minor changes can cause alternate timelines where things are similar but different. Like one of those spot the difference puzzles you get in newspapers or magazines."

"So you're saying that in this reality my counterpart never stayed with my uncle the night her parents were killed and was killed with them."

Instead of blowing up in anger like Harry had thought she might Mara furrowed her brow in thought, mentally she ran through the wards that she knew were layered on the palace and an idea occurred to her, "Your Majesty, have you ever granted asylum as a whole to the Greenbanks family as long as the member needing it serves you faithfully?"

A slow blink was the only outward sign of surprise that the queen showed but everyone in the room knew her well enough to be able to spot it and the exact moment where she began to relax minutely, "We recall granting such conditional asylum a number of years ago to the members of Sir Camden's family who serve us. Are we to understand that you believe this played a part in how you came to be here?"

"I think so your Majesty. The wards are designed to do everything in their power to protect not only the royal family but also those loyal to it. It's possible that the power behind the explosion we experienced intermingled with the wards and that invitation to bring us here, to a version of itself that matched nearly exactly the one we had been in."

A tiny smirk played across Prince Philip's face and his eyes twinkled slightly as they very carefully didn't look at the other two wizards in the room, "So magic itself has vouched for your loyalty it would seem."

Shrugging helplessly Mara met his gaze frankly, "That's the best explanation we can come up with your Highness. I can't find out without access to the wards and they currently reside with James as his role of Court Sorcerer."

Before anyone else could speak a knock at the door brought everyone's attention back to their present situation. Everyone stood when the queen did and she looked around the room slowly, "No one else is to know of this conversation for now. Mister Butler please show our two guests to a private suite for the moment so that they might rest, afterwards you are to research the conclusions that have been reached here. Mister and Mrs Potter we shall speak with you tomorrow. Sir Camden I wish you to accompany us for now."

With that the queen left the room with Prince Philip and Sir Camden, who was casting curious looks back at Mara over his shoulder. Once they were along James turned to them and gave a nervous laugh, "This is going to be weird isn't it."

Harry snorted, "A bit, but if I think of you as my friend's twin or something it should be okay."

"I was actually talking about me. It's not every day I get to meet people who apparently know me, saw me die and then got my old job. It is unnerving."

The rest of the walk to their room was filled with awkward silence and the odd question. For the most part the questions were about their theory that James had to research but every now and then there would be one like, "How did we meet?" or "I was best man at your wedding?!"

By the time they got to their room is was all too obvious that James was dying to escape to study something less confusing like alternate realities so they quietly shut their door as he left. Harry slumped against the closed door and stared unhappily at his wife, no matter what he was feeling about having a good friend not recognise him he couldn't imagine how hard this must be for her. The Camden that he knew doted on his niece, whom he had raised after her parents' death, and to have a man with his face reject her must be hurting badly. Reaching out he pulled Mara into his arms and tucked her head under his chin, "Camden seemed to be less hostile the more we talked. I'll bet once he has a chance to think about it he'll jump at the opportunity to get his niece back."

"Maybe."

They stayed like that for a few minutes, trying to come to terms with the events of the last hour. Eventually Mara pulled back to look up at her husband, "Do you think your counterpart has been placed with the Dursleys here?"

Harry frowned with determination, "If he has been then that's our first order of business."


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you for the reviews. If anyone is curious this idea was sparked when I was reading a story called 'Long Live The Queen'.

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Sir Camden Greenbanks sat staring at the small measure of whiskey in his glass as he thought back over what happened today. His dead niece was alive, married and older than she would have been if she had lived eight years ago; those facts were irrefutable now. He'd wanted to deny her story in an attempt to avoid the pain that could come from tearing the dressing off that old wound but the pain was there even if he didn't want to admit it. Little Mara had died with her parents, brutally murdered barely two months before Voldemort fell and his rabid dogs melted back into that backwards society; and what hurt the most was knowing that she hadn't had to die.

He remembered that night; his niece had begged him to let her stay over as they had planned but he had put his duty to Her Majesty before the wishes of his two-year-old niece and a few days later he had buried all three of them. Was there a chance he could get to know this new, grown up version of Mara? There were a number of different branches of the Greenbanks family, most all of them serving in the Shadow Hand Guards in one capacity or another but only he bore the direct lineage that allowed them to make use of the more…secretive family traits. From the moment the woman had looked at him coldly earlier he knew who she was, no one else could possess such eyes; they were something that changed when a family member swore fealty to the crown and was accepted by the current seated monarch.

There were many worrying things that needed to be sorted out about the two newcomers and what information they might have but for right now he needed to gather his courage and bring them both to Gringotts. Her Majesty had given him permission earlier to take both of them off site to visit the goblins after she had received an urgent message from them about a rift they had sensed on the palace grounds. The Queen felt that sending the two at the epicentre of the disturbance would be the quickest way to clear things up with the ancient warrior society and maintain her good working relationship with their ruler, Ragnok.

Tossing back the last of his drink he stood and headed for James' study, it was the most likely place that the young man would be found and he wanted to get the Court Sorcerer's opinion on the Potters before he went to collect them for their trip to the bank. Five minutes later he knocked on the heavy wooden door and smirked slightly at the sounds coming from within, "Just a minute."

James threw open the door with a slightly dazed expression on his face but the confusion slowly left his eyes as he focused on Camden, "Sir Camden! What can I do for you?"

"May I come in for a moment?"

"Certainly." James stepped back into his study, leaving the door open for Camden to follow him. Looking around he managed to hide a grin at the cluttered mess that was every flat surface in the large study and the small blush on James' face, "Been busy I see."

"Well the queen did want this figured out as quickly as possible."

Nodding Camden took out his wand and quickly sealed the room from eavesdroppers and recording devices, "Have you manged to make head or tails of it yet?"

With a shrug James sat down in an empty seat and waved Camden towards another one, "Somewhat and only because Mrs Potter was willing to offer her own educated guesses as to what happened. She's quiet brilliant actually, I wouldn't have had a clue where to start without her."

"Really?"

"She's definitely telling the truth about being the Court Sorcerer at one point as well. There's no other way she could know about all the wards that would have been needed to create this mess."

Camden slumped in his chair, "And now she probably hates me."

Seeing exactly what was bothering his friend and one-time mentor James softened his voice appropriately, "I don't think she hates you Camden, I think she was hurt by what you said."

"Hurt?!"

"Yes hurt. She obviously has a really solid relationship with your counterpart from their realm, world, universe…whatever you want to call it. For you to blow up like that and nearly cast her out of the family so quickly likely hurt her a lot."

Sighing heavily Camden hung his head, "It's just hard to see the woman that my niece would have grown into stare at me with such…coldness."

James couldn't stop the eye roll that followed that statement, "And it was likely just as hard for her to endure your little temper tantrum as well."

Before the older man could do more than just glare at him James seemed to switch topics, "Apparently the other me was the best man at their wedding. It's bloody odd having a couple of complete strangers tell you things about yourself that are so accurate to how I'd likely have behaved in the same situation. It's very…disconcerting."

"So they're telling the truth then."

"I was already inclined to believe them before I got to research it but now that I have I can say that yes. They are from an alternate reality that is very close to ours, at least where the palace and people who are in it are concerned."

"So why didn't they turn up in another ten years or so?"

"Likely because in ten years the similarities between their world and ours didn't match up as perfectly as they do now."

Camden brought his fingers up to pinch the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "So things go to hell in a few years then?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

Glaring at him Camden tried to not lose his currently stressed temper, "Straight answers James."

"Right now our reality matched enough to their one in the future for the wards on the palace to toss them here in an attempt to save them from the explosion they mentioned."

"Then why are they the only two that appeared?"

"No idea. Best guess is they were the only ones who might survive the trip. They both were walking very stiffly on the way to their room so I'm guessing the journey here wasn't pleasant. Anyway now that they are here it has changed the future of our world."

"How do you figure?"

"He is the Harry Potter all grown up and she is a Silver Eyed Shadow Hand Guard Camden! Even if you don't want to admit it they are both very influential and intelligent people."

"So you noticed her eyes too then."

Exhaling in frustration James flopped back in his seat, "You're the only other person with those eyes Camden, they're a little hard to miss."

All Camden could do to that statement was shrug in reluctant agreement, that had been another thing that had backed up the Potters story; her eyes weren't something that could be faked. Sighing heavily, he stood slowly, "I've been asked to bring them to Gringotts to clear up things with them."

James blinked as he also stood, "That's a surprise. I wonder if anyone else noticed the Potters arrival."

"Maybe but it's not very likely, according to the note they sent I think it's likely that the protective ward they put up back during the blitz is what tipped them off to the disturbance."

"Huh, I'd forgotten about that one. I'll have to make a note to see about getting it tied into the rest of the wards so that I can monitor it as well."

Stopping with his hand on the door handle Camden looked back at him, "It's not ideal to have all our eggs in one basket so maybe this set up is best, for now at least."

James shrugged, "You could be right but at the moment it isn't a top priority. Have fun at the bank."

On his way to the guest room that had been assigned to the Potters he tried to wrap himself in his professional Shadow persona but the memory of Mrs Potter doing the same thing earlier today made it much more difficult than usual. Thankfully he'd managed to pull himself together enough by the time he knocked on the door of his destination but he was so relieved when it would Mr Potter who answered the door and not his wife, "Mr Potter, Her Majesty has requested that I accompany you and your wife to Gringotts to inform Chief Ragnok what has occurred."

Mr Potter's vibrant green eyes blinked in surprise, "I didn't expect Her Majesty to have such close relations with the goblin nation."

Camden felt himself relax slightly at the respectful tone that the other man was using and smiled slightly, "I look forward to sitting down with you at some point and comparing the differences between our worlds, however that will have to wait for now as Chief Ragnok is expecting us in a half hour."

Turning his head Harry called into the room, "Love we're going to a meeting at Gringotts in a half hour, do you think we need to change?"

Mrs Potter's rich voice echoed out from further in the room, "We don't have any other clothes than what we're wearing so we'll just have to do for now. Give me a couple of minutes to wash up and I'm good to go."

The sound of a door closing signalled Mr Potter to gesture him into the room, "You may wait in here if you like while Mara cleans up a bit."

Nodding gratefully Camden followed the younger man into the room and over to the small sitting area by the windows. As he sat down he took the opportunity to study the other man; where the images of Harry Potter that were on a series of children's book depicted a scrawny, be-speckled pale boy, the man across from him was tanned, fit and muscular, as befitting a commander of the Royal Sorcerers division of the SAS. Mr Potter also didn't wear glasses and his eyes held a knowledge of the world that could be seen in seasoned veterans' eyes. Deciding he might not get a better opportunity he asked a question that had been in his head since earlier, "So my counterpart took you under his wing did he?"

He wasn't expecting the laugh that answered him and stared at the other man. Harry grinned as he leaned back casually in his chair, "He did indeed, apparently when Mara and I got serious he decided that if I was going to be family then I needed to know what that meant and that I could keep up with his pseudo daughter. Admittedly I think I only survived it due to my SAS training."

"If you were anything like other wizards then I'm not surprised."

Harry grinned even wider, "They are a lazy bunch alright. It was one of our few advantages during the last two years, that and their disregard of anything invented by non-magicals."

"How bad was it?"

The grin slid off Harry's face and a blank expression replaced it, "It had gotten to the point that the ICW had put a quarantine on Great Britain and non-magical people were fleeing the country despite not fully knowing what was going on. Like I said earlier, London's population was nearly halved and we had to reintroduce rationing because we couldn't get enough food in for everyone."

Camden sat back in his chair in shock, "Good lord! How on earth did it get to that point?!"

He was taken off guard by the voice of Mrs Potter behind him, "We just didn't pay enough attention to the bastards before they started killing us. We arrogantly assumed that because we ignored them they would ignore us like they always had before."

Turning to look at her Camden couldn't ignore the family resemblance, "I thought that they weren't brave enough to act without Voldemort egging them on?"

The carefully neutral tone of his voice seemed to help relax her stiff posture a bit and she nodded to her husband, "Harry managed to kill the bastard but not before a lot of the people who had kept them in check had been killed off. It was a number of years after the end of that war before they felt secure enough to act on their twisted beliefs."

Before he could say anything to that the very determined voice of Mr Potter growled, "I guarantee you Camden that it won't get to that point here."

Between the steady silver eyes of Mrs Potter and the determined emerald orbs of Mr Potter Camden suddenly felt a little bit out of his depth, James had been right in his estimation of these two. Deciding that now was as good a time as any he turned back to Mrs Potter and stood to face her, "I would like to apologise for my earlier rashness, my niece died eight years ago and it's a loss that has haunted me because she was meant to stay over with me that night. I know my words must have hurt you but I would very much like the opportunity to get to know the woman that my niece might have become."

Standing with his hand extended he waited for a response. Harry held his breath as Mara blinked in surprise, the uncle she had known would never admit to being wrong and would always skirt around an apology without actually saying the words. This just reinforced the idea that though the people here were similar they weren't exact copies of the ones they had just left behind. As Mara reached out and took his hand she felt some of the tension in the room melt away and smiled shyly at the man before her, "My name is Mara Potter, it's nice to meet you Sir Camden, perhaps we will get to know each other better as time goes on."

Camden let some of the stress leave him as he matched her smile with one of his own, "I would very much like that Mara, please call me Camden for now."

Her smile lit up the room and Harry clapped his hands to get their attention, "Aren't we going to the see the goblins now?"

* * *

Sitting in a spartan waiting room in Gringotts Harry fought to keep calm; after breaking into the bank back during the war his relationship with the goblins had been strained at best. It wasn't until Mara had taught him about their culture and language that he had understood how many things he had done wrong when dealing with them after the incident, his hope now was that her lessons applied in this world as well as they had back in their world. Respect and ownership of mistakes were highly priced by the goblins and he had never formally apologised to them for his necessary actions in getting the Horcrux out of the Lestrange vault.

Sir Camden had nearly choked in shock when it had been brought up briefly on their trip to the bank and he had been adamant that there was no need to ever raise the fact that Harry was one of three who had successfully stolen from Gringotts in his world. The only thing the goblins knew was that he and Mara weren't from this realm and Camden's exact words had been _"So keep that little nugget of information to yourself for now."_ Harry couldn't really disagree with him on that so had agreed and hoped that today he'd be able to start fresh with the goblin nation. Mara's hand on his wrist brought him out of his thoughts and her soft smile helped to relax him.

They only had to wait for a couple of minutes before a young goblin entered the room and told them to follow him. Once they'd entered a very opulent office Sir Camden took the lead and bowed deeply to the old, regally dressed goblin behind the heavily carved desk, "Greetings Chief Ragnok, thank you for this audience."

Both Potters were surprised at the vicious grin that Ragnok gave Camden, they knew it was a welcoming gesture but such close relationships with the goblins hadn't been something they'd experienced before. Ragnok waved away the young goblin who'd guided them here and relaxed once the door closed and left the four of them alone in the room, "Thank you for coming so quickly old friend, I take it these are the two responsible for the disturbance my ward masters sensed this morning."

Camden shrugged helplessly and waved the two of them forward to stand before the leader of the goblin nation, "Chief Ragnok may I present Mr Harry Potter and Mrs Mara Potter nee Greenbanks."

The small acknowledgement of Mara's parentage did a lot to easy some of the tension she was feeling but she knew that the informal greeting still rankled her husband who was very proud of being a Knight of the Queen. Taking the lead, she bowed deeply to Chief Ragnok, "May your gold overflow and your enemies is crushed by your hands Chief Ragnok. Thank you for your invitation and we hope that we haven't caused you any problems."

Ragnok looked a little surprised for a moment, both from Camden's introduction of who they were and her formal greeting but he recovered admirably, "You are welcome Mrs Potter. As to problems due to your presence in our world, well that is why I extended this invitation to you. There are many things to consider before you start interacting with the general public. Please take a seat and we'll start getting things sorted out."

Holding out the seat for Mara seemed to win Harry points with both Camden and Ragnok so he decided then and there that if he didn't know how to deal with something while with the goblins he'd just fall back on the etiquette that he'd learned when he became a knight. Once they were sitting Camden took charge, "Chief Ragnok how did you know that the Potters were from another world?"

A small grin crossed Ragnok's face and he picked up a sheet of parchment with numerous calculations on it, "At first all we knew was that someone had appeared inside the wards of Buckingham Palace, it was only after our researchers had had a couple of hours to run some arithmetic calculations that we knew whoever had triggered the ward were from one of our world's alternatives."

When he paused Camden nodded with a small smirk, "I'll have the Court Sorcerer make an appointment with your researchers when I return this evening. He's gotten quite wrapped up in his own calculations since the events of this morning."

Ragnok smiled, "I'm sure that my nephew will be delighted to see Ward Master Butler again, I shall make certain that my ward researchers know to expect him." Turning to Harry and Mara he became more serious, "Now to consider the ripples that your presence here will cause. Mr Potter, your counterpart here is only a nine-year-old boy and quite famous in magical society, so your presence here could cause serious issues."

Harry had been considering this since they'd been shown to their room in the palace earlier and thought he might have a work around, he just hoped that Mara wouldn't be annoyed with him for not discussing it with her first, "That is something that we were made aware of earlier Chief Ragnok and I've been considering it since. I don't think that outing myself would be the wisest course of action for now, is there any way that I could be recognised as another Potter?"

Silence reigned for a moment as the head of the goblin nation considered his words, Harry glanced at his wife out of the corner of his eye and her slight smile was enough to let him know that she'd already figured out one of his goals from this question. Ragnok leaned forward and interlocked his fingers on his desk, "It might be possible but I think before we start making any plans at all we should conduct a lineage test on both of you to see if there are any loopholes we can exploit."

They all shared delighted grins at that and Ragnok reached out to press one of the runes engraved into the top of his desk off to his left. It lit up at the touch of his finger and stayed that way until the door opened to admit two more goblins who were dressed in more scholarly outfits than the usual business suits or warrior armour. One was carrying a stone basin while the other toted parchment and quill cases. After they bowed Ragnok waved them towards his desk and they quickly set up the equipment before bowing again and leaving quickly. Mara was pleased to see that many of the goblin forms of conduct that she was familiar with and had spent time teaching her husband seemed to be the same here, it was a relief to know that she didn't have to learn a whole new bunch of etiquette rules but would only have to tweak what she already knew.

Ragnok took a very sharp dagger out of the top drawer of his desk and placed it next to the bowl, "Have either of you ever taken a lineage test before?"

When they both shook their heads he gestured towards the bowl, "It's a simple procedure, normally a human would have to pay for this service but as you are here at my invitation I will waive the usual fees. All that you are required to do is place some of your blood in this basin and the rest will be completed by myself."

As Harry reached for the dagger Mara's strong grip on his wrist stopped him. He blinked in surprise at the determined expression on her face but before he could say anything her voice took control of the conversation, "First I would like to ask Chief Ragnok a question and after that I will take the test first husband. I have a feeling that if there are going to be any surprises they will come from you."

He'd figured out long ago that when Mara referred to him by his title of husband it meant she was very serious about the situation and as much as he wanted to he didn't argue her taking the test first as he knew she was probably right. When he nodded resignedly she gave him a pleased smile and turned back to the others in the room and bowed her head slightly to Ragnok, "Chief Ragnok may I use a blade in your presence in order to perform a lineage test?"

Ragnok laughed in delight and nodded to her, "Lady Potter you may use a blade to take your lineage test."

She carefully didn't think too much on the 'Lady' comment and her pseudo uncle's shocked expression, clearly proper courtesy was valued somewhat more highly with the goblins of this world than the ones back home. Silently filing that fact away for later she picked up the dagger and sliced her palm open, putting the dagger down onto the cloth that Ragnok held out to her she clenched her fist over the stone basin until the goblin chief told her it was enough. As she sat back down Harry gently took her hand and started to clean it before wrapping it in a clean bandage, "Where you get that from love?"

He shot her a small grin and parroted back the words that her uncle had instilled in him years ago, "Hope for the best but be prepared for the worst."

The quiet murmur was just loud enough for Ragnok and Camden to hear and Sir Greenbanks felt his heart stutter slightly at the cadence in the other man's voice, it was obvious that his counterpart had said those words to him a lot. Shaking off the surprise he turned back to watch Ragnok conduct the rest of the test. Murmuring quietly, it was impossible to make out the words that the goblin chief was using but he knew that it was in an ancient form of the goblin tongue, as far as he was aware all of the rituals goblins used were in the nearly dead dialect.

As Ragnok continued to chant he held his hand over the quill and it started to glow, once the glow was strong enough it seemed to lift the writing implement off the table to dip its nib into the slightly bubbling blood in the stone basin. All three humans watched in fascination as the quill then moved to the parchment and began to write quickly, flying back and forth across the page as it sketched out an upside down family tree with Mara's name at the top and her ancestors quickly appearing on the roll below her. After two minutes of writing the quill stopped and floated back to its starting place on the desk and the feel of magic dispersed quickly. They all took a breath while Ragnok reached for the paper and read it through quickly, and then again more slowly.

The tension was starting to get to Harry and he fought to keep still in his seat, the only thing holding him there was Mara's bandaged hand in his and the calmness radiating from her. After a long wait Ragnok lifted his head to look at Mara in surprise and then turned to Camden, "Why did you never tell me you were descended from Myrddin Emrys my friend?"

Camden blinked in surprise and shook his head, "What? Chief Ragnok I don't know what you're talking about."

Although Ragnok was tempted to just hand the parchment over to his friend of many years he instead passed it onto Mara with a carefully blank expression, her lack of surprise suggested that this was something she was already aware of. Mara quickly glanced over the parchment before nodding sharply and left it in her lap, "This all seems to be in order."

Unable to contain himself Camden managed not to shout in surprise but it was a close thing, "In order?! Are you telling me that we're descended from Merlin himself? And you already knew this?!"

She frowned at him, "Of course, my uncle informed me of our family heritage when I fifteen and old enough to being formal training. It's why our family has served the royal family for as long as anyone can care to remember. It's where these particular eyes come from, only direct descendants acquire them and the benefits that come with them." Pausing for a moment she seemed to hesitate, "Are you saying that here the Greenbanks aren't aware of their lineage?"

All he could do was nod mutely and she bit her lip in thought, "This changes things somewhat then. There's no way I could try to re-instate myself into the palace staff or Shadow Hand Guards here without falling back into my usual habits." Turning to her husband she grimaced, "We may need to consider the wizarding world as a base of operations for a while love."

He matched her grimace with one of his own but nodded, "The knowledge that your family was Merlin's descendants was widely known back home and you used it a lot when training your family members in their duties. We can't take the chance of you doing that here until Sir Camden has decided what he wants to do with the information, if anything. I think we'll hold off on making decisions until we have as much information as possible." Looking up he straightened his shoulders and spoke with a formal tone that Camden hadn't heard from him before, "Chief Ragnok will you permit me the use of a blade in your presence for the purpose of performing a lineage test?"

"You may Lord Potter."

The casual throwing around of titles was clearly making Camden uncomfortable, he was obviously remembering Her Majesty's decision to withhold Harry's titles for the moment until she could figure the situation out. Ragnok had clearly made up his mind on the two Potters though and had no such issues; considering Mara's ancestry and the Potter's high profile the titles weren't exactly out of place. Harry choose to take Ragnok's favour as an unexpected blessing and picked up the now clean dagger to slice his palm open. He had a moment of surprise at seeing the stone basin no longer held Mara's blood before his own splashed onto its rune covered surface and the process started all over again.

This time he knew what to expect and only paid minimal attention to the goblin ritual while Mara cleaned and bandaged his hand, instead most of his attention was on Camden who still looked a little stunned to find out that his family was Merlin's descendants. Harry hoped that this might be another step for the man to accept Mara into his family; he'd have to ask his wife if she'd be alright with letting Camden look at the family tree she'd just gotten. Pushing it to the back of his mind for now he turned his attention to the quill that was lifting off the parchment and floating back to its place on the desk once more. As Ragnok picked up the parchment Harry braced himself for things to go to pot, as long as his luck ran true to form.

The only expression of surprise though from Ragnok was a raised eyebrow and his eyes flickering quickly between Harry, Mara and the parchment in his hand. After a minute he cleared his throat, "Well it's no wonder that you two are married Lord Potter, your lineage is no less impressive than your wife's."

With that Ragnok handed him the parchment and Harry held it so that he and Mara could both read it together. Most of it was fairly straightforward and similar to what he had learned about his family before they landed in this world but towards the end was where it got interesting. Mara summed it up better than he could with a short laugh, "No wonder you felt so comfortable serving the Queen my love, after all a descendant of one of the Knights of the Round Table will most likely always feel strongly about protecting others."

Camden's curiosity finally got the better of him and had to ask, "A Knight of the Round Table? May I ask which one?"

Looking up Harry smirked, "Sir Bedivere, the knight tasked with returning Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake."

The laugh that burst from Ragnok took them all by surprise, "I'm surprised you even know that much about him Lord Potter. Sir Bedivere was actually one of the few humans who earned the title of Goblin Friend after losing a hand in a conflict we were engaged in at the time, unlike most humans he had actually bothered to learn what the issues were in that war and choose to side with the goblin nation as he felt that we were in the right. It was during the peace talks that ended that war that lead to us goblins taking control of the financial situation of the kingdom in an effort to maintain the peace."

A smirk crossed Camden's face as they got onto territory that he could contribute to, "That treaty hasn't actually changed much since its first incarnation. The only reason that the agreement was made in the first place was because of the _mystery knight_ who championed the goblin cause, on the human side it's never been known who exactly vouched for the goblin nation but it certainly makes a lot of sense as to why that person had so much sway if they were Sir Bedivere."

Ragnok took up the narrative again for the two very interested Potters, "Most people only remember King Arthur, Merlin and a couple of the knights that made up the Round Table. It's sad that one of the most honourable of them has been mostly forgotten to time for all except the goblin nation. It's no surprise though that the seat of your family power has always been in Wales as Sir Bedivere was also known as Sir Bedwyr and preferred to live there in his free time."

Camden made a small noise of surprise, "Now that is a name that vaguely rings a bell, Bedwyr was the name of one of the original Wizard Council, what later became the Wizengamot. He was one of the few that argued for better relations between magical races but he faced a lot of opposition as most members were more concerned with consolidating the power of their newly minted government. But that was a few generations after the fall of Camelot and the Round Table so it couldn't have been the same man."

With a shrug Ragnok confirmed his statement, "It wasn't, but it was one of his descendants. But none of that is really relevant in this instance, although if you would ever like to learn more about your ancestor Lord Potter you can always petition our record department."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind Chief Ragnok, it would be very nice to learn more about a bit of my family history that I didn't know existed. But you're right, for the moment it isn't really important."

This was where Camden jumped in, "Actually it might prove useful if you decide to live in the wizarding world. You can't really go around calling yourself Harry Potter but having a different name to use that holds power will definitely help you with any plans you might have."

Harry couldn't help the sly smirk that he exchanged with his wife before he turned back to Greenbanks patriarch, "What makes you think I have plans already Sir Camden?"

The unimpressed look was so familiar that Harry couldn't help but grin, "Don't try to play me lad, I've been at this sort of thing since long before you were born. So would you like some help?"

Harry was surprised at the offer and blinked, "Are you sure you are in a position to help us?"

"I've gotten to know you both a bit and believe nothing you plan will be detrimental towards Her Majesty, plus…you are family and I've had precious little of that for several years now."

Mara gasped, "But our family is huge! What about all of them?!"

Shrugging Camden seemed sad but unconcerned, "We work together but we aren't close. Many of them are quite jealous of the obvious _favour_ of my eyes that they can't have so it makes getting close with them difficult."

"Idiots."

A light hug was all that Harry to do in the face of that news but Mara sent him a grateful smile and then shrugged, "Well it wasn't like I was planning on getting to know them much myself. So how can Harry's lineage help him?"

Ragnok cleared his throat to get back into the conversation with a vicious grin, "As a Potter you would hold a seat on the Wizengamot, but as a Bedwyr you would hold several and the proxy for the Potter seat as well…something that currently resides with Albus Dumbledore I might add."

Rolling his eyes Harry sagged a bit in his chair, "Of course it does."

Camden's eyebrow rose in surprise, "You have a problem with Dumbledore?"

Harry very careful considered the other two people in the room; he knew that the goblins in his world had never really cared for Dumbledore and his grip on the magical world and his lip service to equality. Judging from the carefully neutral expression on Ragnok's face he had a feeling that the animosity might be a bit more pronounced here. Camden on the other hand had a very intense look on his face and a rather fierce look in his eyes, Harry nearly grinned knowing that he wasn't the only person in the room with a low opinion of Dumbledore, or at least his methods.

"In our world Dumbledore exiled me to live with my mother's only living relative. It has taken me many years to be comfortable admitting that it was a rather abusive environment to be in, Mara once expressed shock at the fact that I didn't turn into something similar to Voldemort after growing up like that. After my return to the wizarding world Dumbledore kept me ignorant of a lot of things, both about my own family and how the world really worked. I wasn't alone in this, most witches and wizards born to mundane parents weren't told that their prospects after Hogwarts were practically none existent."

He turned to Mara who smirked and threw in her two cents, "Hermione, our mundane born friend, once theorised that the reason everyone told her lies about her chances after school was to keep her in the wizarding world long enough for some _pureblood_ to nab her as a wife and baby machine. That was a particularly angry drinking session I must say."

Harry laughed and finished up his thoughts on the matter, "I don't know what the Dumbledore of your world is like but if he is anything like ours was then he and I will clash over a great many things. The Dumbledore I knew hoarded information and power like a dragon hoards gold and used 'The Greater Good' as an excuse to maintain the status quo that had given him his power in the first place. I don't know if he was as evil as some of his actions made him look like but I doubt I'll be able to trust anything this version of him says unless he manages to prove himself to be better than the man I knew."

Ragnok smiled evilly at Harry, "Well said Lord Potter. I do believe that you may one day join your ancestor in esteem within the goblin nation if that continues to be your outlook."

Matching Ragnok's grin Harry dropped the formal air he'd adopted for most of the meeting and suddenly seemed much more dangerous to Camden, "It seems you share some of my opinions on him."

Camden couldn't believe his eyes or ears when Ragnok barked out a laugh instead of being offended at the casual nature of Harry's statement. Even he who had been personal friends with the goblin chief for many years still maintain a certain level of decorum when talking in private. Also seeing this darker side of Mr Potter, that was disturbingly matched with a serene air of violence around his almost niece put Camden a little on edge and he was very glad that they were on his side…for now.

Shaking off the darker thoughts whirling in his head Harry turned to look at Mara with a silent question in his eyes. For her part Mara was quietly hoping to have a go at the Dumbledore of this world to exact a little revenge if he proved himself similar to the one of the world they'd left behind. Seeing her husband's questioning eyes, she softened and smiled at him, "Love I am married to **you** , not your name. If you choose to change it just make sure you do it right and no one else can find out about this."

He nodded and turned back to the goblin leader, "Chief Ragnok, what would I have to do to claim the Bedwyr name as my own?"

Ragnok leaned back in his seat and regarded him closely, "The name is yours by the blood in your veins but to claim the title that goes with the name would require you to undergo a ritual to prove yourself worthy of the title. Magic itself will judge you if you choose to go that route."

Before he could leap headfirst into saying yes Mara's hand on his wrist once again gave him pause and he looked at his beautiful, calm wife. When she had his attention she smiled and turned to Ragnok, "May we request some more information on the titles, duties, deeds, etc that may come along with my husband taking up the Bedwyr name Chief Ragnok? I would like to have time to fully go over what it may involve with my husband."

"Of course Lady Potter, I will ensure that everything pertaining to the Bedwyr name and family are ready for you before you leave today."

So saying Ragnok swiftly wrote a note on some parchment and pressed another of the runes on his stone desk. A young goblin entered and Ragnok handed him the note, "Take this to Archivist Bloodfang immediately."

The young goblin bowed and practically ran from the room to carry out his leader's order. When the door closed behind him Ragnok once more turned back to the three humans in front of him, "Now is there anything else that myself or Gringotts can help you with today?"

Before Camden could decline Harry jumped in, "Actually Chief Ragnok, if you could find out as much as possible about the current whereabouts of my counterpart I would be very grateful. Sir Camden and Mr Butler have agreed to get us files on everything that we may need to be up to date on but that is one topic that I think you will have more success in than they will."

Nodding Ragnok stood to end the meeting, "I'll send any information I find out about young Mr Potter to you at a later date, as long as it doesn't detrimentally effect our client. Until then Lord and Lady Potter it's been a pleasure. Sir Camden it is always good to see you. May your plans triumph and your enemies fall."


	3. Chapter 3

Back again. Thanks everyone who's read and reviewed, I especially liked the review saying they'd forgotten they had an author alert for me but were happy they had (got a smile out of that one so cheers). If there are any spelling issues just know that I'm uploading these as soon as I've finished them so that the story continues but I do plan to come back and fix any issues I catch.

* * *

Mara reclined on the bed in their room back at Buckingham Palace and slowly leafed through the documents that they'd collected from the goblins about the Bedwyr name and title. She couldn't get over the amount of political power that would come with the title if Harry proved himself worthy of it. Looking up she spied her husband calmly brushing his teeth through the open bathroom door, "Hey love, did you see this bit on Hogwarts here?"

He looked at her in surprise and she couldn't help but grin at how cartoon-y he looked with a toothbrush sticking out of the corner of his mouth and his vibrant green eyes wide. Putting down the papers in her hand Mara rolled over the bed smoothly and sashayed over to her husband, enjoying how his eyes were glued to her hypnotically. Reaching up she kissed his cheek with her eyes shining, "I love you very much you delightfully silly man."

Quickly he rinsed his mouth out with water and pulled her close in a tight hug, she could feel his body start to relax and rested her head against his shoulder, "We haven't really had time to relax properly since we've been here, have we."

Harry's voice was just a murmur, buried in her hair, "We haven't been here a full day yet so that's not exactly surprising sweetheart. There's a lot to take in about this world."

"We won't be able to go back."

She wasn't expecting his unconcerned shrug to that, "You were the only one there that I would have gone back for my love. After Teddy was killed I didn't think I'd ever be happy again but you gave me something to live for. I know that Hermione and your uncle were with the queen at the time of that explosion…"

Sighing heavily, she felt her throat clinch, "So it's unlikely that they survived."

They stayed like that for a few minutes with tears leaking out of their eyes, mourning the people they had known back home. It would hurt for a long time but the two of them were very resilient people so they would adjust, this loss wouldn't break them but it would likely shape them and their plans. Harry was the one to break the silence, "Promise me we won't let it get to that point again love."

Tightening her hold on him Mara revelled in his arms around her, "We won't let it get to that point here love, we have a lot more to work with and we have time."

"Not that much. If the Harry Potter of this world is stuck with abusive Dursleys I want to get him out of that house as quickly as possible and that is going to lead to me having some kind of confrontation with Dumbledore."

Mara pulled back and put her hand on his cheek and smirked at him, "And that's why I was asking if you'd spotted the bit about Hogwarts in those Bedwyr papers, but by your expression I'd say the answer is no."

He smiled and kissed her softly, "You'd be correct so why don't you fill me in before we head to bed and rest for the night. I doubt I'll sleep without knowing the titbit you've just dangled in front of me but I think we should wait until morning before we start discussing it."

"It'll give us both time to think over it as well." With another quick kiss she pulled away and reached over to pick up the parchment that she'd been looking over a few minutes ago. Scanning the words quickly she located the part that had grabbed her interest before getting distracted by her lovably, goofy husband, "According to this, Sir Bedwyr was a friend to Merlin even after the death of King Arthur so he visited Hogwarts on occasion. Before Merlin left he entrusted the knight with _overseeing_ changes made at the school…I wonder if he had noticed the rift starting between the founders even then and wanted someone to help if it got out of hand."

"As interesting as this is love what exactly do you mean by oversee?"

She threw him a very wicked grin that made his blood run hot and cold at the same time, he'd never figured out if he loved or hated that expression on her face, it always got such a mixed reaction from him. And the minx knew it if the twinkle in her molten silver eyes was any indication, "It seems that when that pink obsessed bitch took over your school back in our world she stole that title from your ancestor."

Blinking he shuddered, "I think I need a shower."

With a quiet laugh Mara put the documents back in the file they came in and placed them on the dresser before giving him another tight hug, "You have to admit though that if you do want to do anything regarding Hogwarts here being the High Inquisitor will come in handy. And don't you find it at least a little amusing that you might be using one of the vile bitch's schemes against her? Even if it is only a version of the one you knew."

A reluctant grin crossed his face before he shook his head at his wife, "You are incorrigible my love."

Mara laughed and turned to climb into bed, "You love it."

He took one last fond look at his wife grinning at him from the bed and flicked off the light before joining her. As they lay snuggling and finally coming down from the adrenaline high of the long day Harry let out of long sigh of contentment, "I don't know why but I feel lighter since we got here my love."

She snuggled into him more as she answered, "You've carried the deaths of so many with you for years love, and now it's like they are all back from the dead. If I know you at all you've already started subconsciously looking at this as a second chance."

Holding her tightly he asked a question that he was very worried about, "Are you angry with me about that? I mean we've lost our Camden because of what happened."

Mara let a small sigh, "A part of me would like to be angry with you because I'm mourning my uncle…but what we've gained can't be ignored. James is alive, so is everyone that you lost from the wizarding world, we have a chance to save them and…the Camden of this world does seem to be willing to build a relationship with me. We might never be as close as we were back home but I haven't lost him, he's just changed and I need to figure out this new version of my uncle."

"I'll be with you the whole way sweetheart."

"I know you will love and that is the most important thing about this, I still have the man I married by my side."

They both drifted slowly off to sleep after that and let the stress from the day ease out of them. Tomorrow would be here soon enough.

* * *

The next couple of days were spent getting themselves up to speed on the minor changes between this world and their old one. Most mornings they would take breakfast with James, getting to know this version of their old friend in less stressful circumstances and providing him with the odd idea for another area of his research, which was coming along in leaps and bounds now that he was working with the goblins as well. Very slowly the three were building a solid friendship but Harry, over the course of those few meals, gained a new understanding of his long dead godfather; once or twice Sirius had referred to him as James, he'd apologised but Harry had still been slightly hurt at the idea that his own godfather didn't like him for who he was, rather for who he reminded him of. Now though as he sipped his morning tea and happily listened to his wife discuss some obscure aspect of the palace wards with the near stranger who wore his friend's face he felt that he could let that pain go, finally. Though the thought did remind him about something, "James, Mara, sorry to interrupt you but I just remembered something. Is Sirius Black incarcerated in Azkaban in this world?"

James shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat, "Yes, for betraying the Potters and the murder of several mundane people along with another wizard. Why do you ask?"

A determined expression descended on Harry's face and he noticed Mara's thoughtful look out of the corner of his eye as he filled James in, "Back in our world Sirius Black broke out of prison when I was thirteen, as you can imagine the panic that caused in the wizarding world resulted in a nation-wide manhunt and they even let the non-magical government know what was going on so that he couldn't hide there. Everyone assumed he had broken out to finish me off, the opposite was true however. The wizard he'd supposedly murdered had actually been the one behind the betrayal of my family and the murder of all those innocent people…the little coward had been in hiding as a pet of a wizarding family for years."

"A pet?! You mean he was an unregistered animagus?"

Nodding Harry put his tea down, he didn't want to make it too obvious that his muscles were trembling from suppressed rage, knowing the same might be true here had him quite angry, "Yes, a rat actually. Anyways at the end of my third year of school I found out the truth and discovered that Sirius was my godfather however the traitor escaped so we were unable to prove it and he had to on the run again. Two years later he died in a trap that I stupidly walked into, still a wanted man with a kiss on sight order on his head."

As Harry paused to take a much needed calming breath James' eyes had a faraway look in them as he considered what he'd been told, "But why didn't the truth come out at Black's trial?"

Mara moved over to her husband and stood with her arm around his shoulder, acting as a calming balm on his soul, many deaths hung heavily on Harry's conscience but Sirius' in particular was hard to bare as he never stopped feeling like it was his fault. She however placed the majority of the blame on Albus 'Information Whore' Dumbledore, if the interfering old codger had bothered to keep her husband informed then he'd never have set foot in that place to begin with. The angry thoughts flitted through her mind as she answered James' question, "He never got one."

Shocked silence reigned for a long moment as James stared open mouthed at her and Harry before finally blinking his way back to sentence forming capacity, "Well here Sirius Black is in prison and has been for years. I don't know if he got a trial here and was proven guilty but considering how very similar the situations seem to be I'm going to check and make sure. If he didn't receive one then I know for a fact that the Queen has some very interesting options open to her to _interfere_ , as some might call it, in the wizarding world. Frankly I've never liked dementors so if she ordered them all executed then it'd be no great loss."

It was Harry's turn to be surprised, "They can be killed?"

James shrugged, "It takes a bit of work but yes they can be…didn't you ever kill one of them where you're from?"

Both shook their heads but it was Harry who answered, "The best we managed was to contain them. I know that the Queen ordered the three that had been sent to dispatch her a year ago to be encased in the walls of one of the deserted parts of the Tower of London dungeons."

Mara grimaced, "That was not a fun job **at all**."

Murmuring James picked up his mug of coffee, "I'll bet."

"How do you kill them here?"

James took a moment to answer Harry's question, "Well you need to weaken them with a few strong patroni first and we discovered during the Voldemort war in the seventies that if you put enough bullets in them it has a similar effect, after that it's a matter of making them lose the will to exist."

That wasn't exactly what Harry was expecting, "And…how do you manage that?"

"Patroni hurt them and some of our potion researchers figured out how to distil that feeling down into a potion with the help of an outside consultant; if you douse a dementor in it they fade faster."

A different point caught Mara's attention, "Bullets? How'd you manage that? Non-magicals in our world couldn't see the soul suckers, they could only sense them."

Nodding James set down his coffee, "It's the same here but we have a large number of mundane born magicals working in specialised forces and even some of our more alert non-magical snipers can ping a dementor if they manage to sense it."

Mara's nose twitched, "You bring in outside consultants on these sort of things often?"

He shook his head, "It's rare but Selene Lovegood is an outstanding potions mistress and an accomplished spell crafter as well, plus while she lives in the wizarding world she is one of the rare ones who isn't a sheep so we don't mind commissioning help from her sometimes on things like that."

These were two very welcome bits of news to both Potters, dementors had been a real concern back in their world and had been one of Voldemort's trump cards during his war, and Harry well remembered how much losing her mother had affected Luna so he was pleased that he might be in a position to help. Mara sat gently on the arm of Harry's chair and hummed thoughtfully, "That's very good to know. For the moment though I think we need to focus on getting Harry recognised as Lord Bedwyr so that he can start the process of getting Sirius out of Azkaban, legally."

James nodded to them, "Yes the goblins seem to be very excited at the prospect of the revival of that name. Don't worry they don't know it's you but there has been some gossip and Bedwyr is a name that gets tongues wagging, at least among the goblin nation. I know that Sir Camden is planning on bringing you back to Gringotts tonight for the test if you give the go ahead."

With a wave of his hand Harry assented, "You can tell him to go ahead with it, we've done as much research into the Bedwyr name as we can and I feel that I can properly represent it without doing damage to its standing, plus I can't ignore just how useful the weight of that name will be to our plans. Before we get on with the day though I have one last question, does Selene Lovegood's husband run a wizarding paper called The Quibbler and is she still alive?"

Blinking in surprise at the odd question James just nodded, luckily Harry didn't keep him in suspense for long, "In our world their daughter became a very good friend of mine, she told me once how her mother died when she was…six I think and that she saw it happen but wasn't able to do anything. Now if my counterpart is nine at the moment that would make this world's Luna eight so clearly the accident that killed her in our world hasn't happened here, but I don't want to take a chance on it just being delayed. Do you think you could arrange some kind of working relationship with Mrs Lovegood that would allow you to set wards at her workshop in case of an accident?"

James was vaguely aware of Mara's surprised but pleased expression and idly wondered what she was thinking but he hummed thoughtfully, "Selene is unique in Britain as she holds more than one mastery so it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for us to arrange some form of professional partnership with her, if she lets us. But considering she's happy to help out here and there I think she'll be amicable to the idea. I'll have to see about the wards though."

Standing Harry smiled at the other man, "That's all I can ask of you James, I appreciate you not just brushing off my concerns."

"How can I? There are just too many similarities between our worlds for me to ignore what you say, besides I like Selene and Xeno is a hoot, I'd hate anything to happen to them."

Smiling happily both Potters headed back to the rooms that had been temporarily assigned to them as James headed off to hopefully talk to someone about getting in touch with Mrs Lovegood. Once they were back in their room Mara turned to her husband and pulled him into an intense kiss which caught him off guard and left him with a goofy smile on his face, "What was that for?"

She smirked at him in delight, "Two things, first you remembered Luna's mother and tried to help. And secondly you did it without jumping head first into it like an excitable teenager."

Matching her smirk, he shook his head, "Why is it that you always get a little turned on when I behave like an adult?"

"Cause it's sexy when you use that brain of yours." She couldn't bring herself to mention how nice it was not to have to curb his tendency to run headlong into a situation without thinking any more. Hermione had told her horror stories of trying to make Harry stop to think before jumping into things and even Luna had mentioned it once or twice, though the sweet blonde had refrained from the language that had been present in Hermione's explanation. It was just gratifying to Mara to see the man she loved had matured so much from the hot head he'd been as a teenager into a calm, assured man. Unable to hide her delighted smirk she pulled one of her combat tricks and knocked him onto the bed before sitting on his lap with a saucy flick of her hair, "Now we've got some time to ourselves so let's make the most of our last few hours as Potters."

There wasn't really anything that Harry could argue with in that so he just smiled and pulled her into a deep kiss. They'd deal with everything else later.

* * *

Eight o'clock that evening found them once more sitting in Chief Ragnok's office underneath Gringotts but this time there was a few additions to the group. Two older goblins, who'd been introduced as druids, stood off to the side in dark green robes and James had decided to accompany them to act as a second witness for the royal family, he also was there to carry out the queen's wishes if Harry proved worthy of the name Bedwyr; the goblins weren't the only ones with long memories. Sir Camden had taken a seat next to Mara, it was just another sign to a relieved Harry that the two were building a solid familial relationship, they may never be as close as Mara was to the Camden they had known but this version was much more tolerable as far as Harry was concerned. Not that he'd ever say that aloud to his wife! She'd likely skin him for the sentiment.

Once the clock struck the hour the two robed goblins moved towards a door at the back of Ragnok's office with quick strides. Standing Ragnok motioned for everyone to follow him and they all silently walked behind him. After five minutes of descending deeper under Gringotts they came to a more open space containing an engraved archway. Mara could just make out the flow of runes on the stone arch but she couldn't read them, they were a dialect she was unfamiliar with. As she watched the goblins spread out she idly wondered if this was the written form of the ancient goblin tongue that was used for rituals, it would make sense since that was what they were here for. Her rambling thoughts were cut off by the strong commanding voice of Ragnok, "A petition has been made for a name. Step forth hopeful and state your claim. May the arch judge you as it sees fit."

Having been couched on what was involved Harry gave Mara's hand one last squeeze, shrugged off the heavy outer robe he had been wearing and stepped over the line of runes on the floor separating the ritual area from the observation area. Standing tall and proud, wearing only loose fitting trousers that hung low on his hips Harry spoke the words as that had been included in the information he had gotten from Ragnok a few days ago, "By right of blood and deeds I ask to be judged as a Bedwyr."

The arch lit up and remembering the instructions Harry walked barefoot through it. As he felt the heat from the arch he tried to remain calm, which became a little harder when it held him immobile for a long moment. His life flashed quickly before his eyes and every emotion that he had felt at the time crashed into his unprepared mind; this information definitely hadn't been in the packet he'd gotten from the goblins. The earlier years of his life managed to drag a long harsh scream from his throat as all the guilt, anger, pain, angst and sorrow seemed to hit him at once. Once the memories moved onto the years after Hogwarts it got easier as his love for Mara just seemed to grow and grow.

When Harry screamed Mara had to be held back by both Camden and James as she struggled to reach her husband. The scream cut off abruptly and the glow surrounding Harry intensified to the point that it was nearly impossible to look at him, Camden yelled as the heat reached them, "Chief Ragnok is this supposed to be happening?!"

The goblin chief was flabbergasted and couldn't take his eyes off the spectacle in front of him but he still managed to answer the question, "I don't know Sir Camden, this is the first time this has happened since the Bedwyr name disappeared!"

Mara had had enough and she flared her magic at the same time as she twisted herself out of the holds of the two men. She was too skilled and too strong for them to stop her and before anyone could react she ran into the lit up rune array that surrounded the glowing arch, "I demand that you return my husband this instant."

Everyone was utterly shocked when the light cut off suddenly and Harry collapsed onto the stone floor shaking lightly. No one could speak as the commanding presence of Mara Potter strode to her husband's side and flared her magic again. The observing goblins and humans could only watch in awe as her eyes shimmered with a deadly light while she sank to her knees to check how Harry was. They were so quiet that everyone could hear the black haired man weakly joking with his wife, "I thought I was the one who was supposed to jump head first into things."

"It's a lady's prerogative to keep her husband guessing. Now what happened?"

Before he could answer the arch flared one last time and a white light surrounded the pair, the observers were surprised but the thing that shocked everyone though was how the colour of the light changed to silver when it fully encompassed Mara. Everyone in the room was familiar enough with Sir Camden's eyes to be able to match the colour and the goblins were very worried about what Mrs Potter's interference might have caused. Suddenly their worried thoughts were halted by a soft chime and the light faded a bit, slowly every rune that had been lit stopped glowing and the light receded back towards the couple under the arch.

Both Camden and James were watching Chief Ragnok with one eye, waiting for the moment he dropped the hand that he'd held out in a 'wait' gesture. The silver glow surrounding the couple started to dim and with agonising slowness they could start to make out details again. The thing that struck them was that both Potters were standing, side by side under the arch and Harry no longer seemed to be in distress. When the light finally faded back to nothing there were some very obvious changes to Mr Potter, as he was only wearing a pair of trousers it was impossible to hide the new blue coloured rune array tattoo that was over his heart, and when he turned slightly to look at Mara it was possible to see a bigger rune array trailing down his spine.

The most striking thing though to Camden was the way both held themselves, since he had met the two Potters less than a week ago their postures were usually assured, confident and ready, but now there was an undeniable strength to them that couldn't be ignored. Chief Ragnok finally dropped his hand and Camden couldn't restrain himself from hurrying over to them, "Mara what were you thinking?! Are you two alright?"

A soft smile touched her lips and she held up a soothing hand, "We are fine Sir Camden but before we continue there's something that we must do."

So saying they moved past him with slow measured steps, heading for the goblin leader. Ragnok watched with well-hidden surprise as these two powerful people knelt on one knee before him and bowed their heads. Harry may have spoken but it was easy to tell that the words from the two of them, "Chief Ragnok, we wish to thank you for facilitating this ritual and giving us the opportunity to prove ourselves to our ancestors."

Ragnok's voice was steady as the rocks surrounding, "It is my pleasure Lord and Lady Bedwyr, though I hope you will inform myself and my druids as to what exactly happened here today. Such a thing has not been seen before by the goblin nation."

Looking up but remaining on her knee Mara smiled at the goblin chief, "That is because all that came before to attempt this were proven to be unworthy of the names they sought to possess. We have no interest in possessing the names, simply in bringing them to a place of honour once again." She paused for a moment before throwing a bit of a spanner in the works, "And my title is actually Lady Emrys, Chief Ragnok."

"Oh good lord!"

James blushed as every head turned to him but Camden privately agreed with the young Court Sorcerer, if the name Bedwyr didn't cause issues then that one certainly would. He had a feeling that his planned meeting with the queen when he got back tonight was going to take much longer than what they had initially thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the wait but things have gotten away from me lately. Thank you to the lovely reviewers and I hope you like this chapter. It was surprisingly hard to write.

* * *

"So what are your thoughts on this Ragnok?"

The goblin leader sat calmly in an appropriately sized chair in the private study of Queen Elizabeth the second and shrugged at his fellow ruler of Britain, "Honestly Elizabeth I have so many conflicting thoughts on the whole thing that it could take me days to give you a straight answer to that question."

Hearing the goblin speak her first name so casually was a rare pleasure for the queen, she'd been on the throne for decades and very few people felt comfortable enough to just chat with her. It was times like this that she was very glad she had put the effort in to establish closer relations with Ragnok's people. The two rulers were such close friends now that when the new Lord Bedwyr and Lady Emrys had collapsed from magical exhaustion not long after claiming their titles he had decided to personally deliver the news while Sir Camden and Mister Butler stayed to help look after them in Gringotts. As the two were alone in her study and it had been warded against eavesdropper's years ago she allowed herself to sigh in frustration, "Can I trust them Ragnok? They seem loyal but I don't know them and they have information that I can't act on until I know they're above reproach."

Ragnok grinned at her, luckily despite the vicious expression she was familiar enough with him to see it for what it was, "Well that is one concern I can definitely put to rest for you. Those two wouldn't have been able to claim the names they did tonight if they weren't trustworthy. Both Sir Bedwyr and Myrddin Emrys were loyal to the crown, as long as the crown has the best interests of the people at heart."

"So you're saying that as long as I'm above reproach they will be loyal?"

"Isn't that all you really want? I know that it is a weight off my mind knowing that I have subjects faithful to me who will step in if I start to act against the interests of the nation."

After thinking it through for a moment Elizabeth nodded, "You're right, it just galls me that I don't seem to get to make the decision of who I can trust."

"After all these years Elizabeth don't you trust magic?"

She threw him a look of mild annoyance, "That is not what I meant Ragnok and you know it."

The goblin smirked at her unrepentantly and changed directions slightly, "If you can't trust them then trust my judgement of them. They have conducted themselves with grace, honesty and honour in all my dealings with them and the one thing we know about that test is that it forces you to relived your life up to the point you step through the arch. Magic decides whether or not the person's actions up to that point are worthy of their title."

"You said that…Lord Bedwyr screamed during his test. Why would you say that happened?"

Ragnok frowned, "If I had to guess I'd say it's due to a less than ideal childhood and adolescence. The test makes you relive your life and forces you to experience all the emotions connected to those memories, almost at once so if he had a hard life it would explain the scream."

Humming in thought the queen leaned back in her seat and looked at the flames flickering in the fireplace, "How long until they recover?"

"They should be up and about around midday tomorrow…actually today."

Looking at the clock in surprise she shook her head, "I'm sorry for keeping you so late Ragnok. Will you inform Sir Camden and Mister Butler that they are to escort Lord Bedwyr and Lady Emrys to a meeting with me at four p.m. later today? If they have recovered enough that is."

With a nod Ragnok stood up and headed towards the fireplace, "Of course Elizabeth, I should return and make sure that nothing has gone awry. Until our next meeting Your Majesty."

"Until the next time Chief Ragnok."

After the farewells Ragnok stepped into the flames and disappeared in a flash of green fire. Once he had departed the queen sat for a while watching the burning embers, her thoughts flying by at a mile a minute. It took her twenty minutes to come to a decision and quickly penned a couple of memos before retiring for the night. Today would eventually shape the future of her country and she hoped she had made the right decision in trusting the former Potters.

* * *

Harry slowly came back to consciousness in bits and pieces, the first thing that returned was his hearing and it amused him a little to hear the voice of his wife berating a goblin, at least he assumed it was a goblin as she was speaking the language. He'd always thought it sounded vaguely like the Klingon language from Star Trek but despite the harsh tones he still thought Mara had a gorgeous voice.

He didn't bother trying to follow what was being said as his brain wasn't up to speed yet but after a couple of minutes he was sure that whoever she was giving out to was a healer. It seemed his wife didn't like the fact that the healer, or healers, were trying to enforce bedrest. Unfortunately, he wasn't really able to focus on his surroundings and instead found himself slipping into the memory of the test that he'd taken…and Mara had accidentally taken. He was more than a little surprised that magic hadn't punished either of them for disrupting the test; hopefully his wife would have some theory on that, she was the more intelligent one of the two of them, if she had gone to Hogwarts he was certain she'd have been a Ravenclaw.

When the voices raised somewhat and devolved into what he was fairly sure was goblin insults he cracked his eye and groaned at the brightness sent a dart of pain into his brain. Abruptly the voices cut off and after a short scuffle Harry felt his wife's fingers wrap gently around his hand, "How do you feel love?"

"Foggy."

He could barely speak with how dry his throat felt and coughed harshly, a couple of seconds later he felt the coolness of a glass against his lips and the heavenly feel of water washing into his mouth. Sighing in relief he let his head fall back on the pillow and once more cracked one of his eyes open, this time the light didn't hurt as much thankfully. After a moment of his vision reverting back to the blurry mess it had been in his youth it cleared and he could see his beloved wife leaning over him slightly. He took in the silver halo of hair and the lines of her face and frowned, "You look different love."

Smiling Mara took a seat on his bed, twirled a silky, silvery lock of hair between her fingers and shrugged, "It seems that some of our physical traits have changed to match our ancestry. Thankfully it's mostly just been a few faint facial restructurings for me, my cheekbones are a little more pronounced I think and my lips are a bit fuller but I don't think anything else has changed."

Running her free hand along the line of his jaw she smirked at him, "You however no longer are a carbon copy of your dad, I think your bone structure actually more resembles the photos you showed me of your godfather now."

He gave her a weak grin, "That bad huh?"

A faint blush coloured her cheeks briefly and her eyes glowed with molten silver for a moment, "Not at all."

The heated moment was interrupted by a goblin healer bustling between the two and ordering Mara back to bed. Harry braced himself for the explosion but instead she grinned evilly at the short healer and climbed into bed next to her husband explaining in goblin that he "hadn't specified which bed". Rolling his eyes at her surprisingly playful antics Harry just put his arm around her slowly, due to his aching muscles and held her close. Things couldn't be too bad if she was in this good of a mood, "So apart from a little bone restructuring, what else is different?"

She smiled softly at him, "Well I've only got a little pain in my jaw and cheekbones but you'll probably hurt a bit more as you're about three inches taller now. It seems that despite the help you got when you signed up with the SAS it didn't correct all the effects of your poor upbringing. So, your muscles will likely feel over-stretched and your joints are going to be achy for a day or two according to Whiteclaw here."

Turning to the scowling goblin healer next to his bed Harry slipped into goblin, _"My thanks for your excellent care Healer Whiteclaw. May your allies prosper and enemies fall before you."_

With a put-upon sigh Whiteclaw rolled his eyes, "You might as well speak English Sir Bedwyr, though the attempt is appreciated, your accent is abdominal, mine is much better."

"Fair enough Healer Whiteclaw, and please just call me Harry while I'm in your care. I will be getting enough of that Sir Bedwyr business once I'm out of here so I might as well enjoy hearing my name as much as possible now."

"Very well Harry, you may call me Whiteclaw in return. Now could you please evict your wife from your bed so that I can examine you now that you're awake."

Hearing the irritation in the goblin's voice Harry smirked and nudged Mara, "I'd like to continue snuggling with you love but Whiteclaw does need to do his job now."

She threw him a mock pout as she climbed out of bed and moved away a little to do some stretches. Whiteclaw frowned at this, "You should be resting Lady Emerys."

"I've rested enough, besides this are just some light stretches, nothing too exhausting so it'll be fine. Attend to your other patient Healer Whiteclaw."

Harry discretely shook his head at his goblin healer with a soft smile on his face, "My wife knows her body well enough Whiteclaw, I trust her not to do anything to extend her stay in your care. She and I have a long list of things we need to do, right love?"

Sighing in defeat Mara threw a disgruntled look at her husband and returned to her bed, though she still stretched out some of her muscles while sitting. Whiteclaw smirked dangerously in pleasure at Harry and gave him a minute nod of thanks as he continued his examination. The married couple shared an amused smile over his head and Harry voiced a question that had been bugging him, "Why have we changed physically?"

Whiteclaw answered as he made some notes on his parchment about his findings, "According to the researchers the physical changes are connected with the magic that is now available to you both. Lady Emrys already had part of her hereditary powers available to her, I'm assuming it's due to her being aware of the connection from your world."

As they both looked over at Mara she nodded, "Once I was aware of my ancestry and duties I underwent a test, it wasn't anything on the scale of what we had here, but that's when my eye colour changed and I had a growth spurt after it. Might be why I've only had minor changes."

Harry hummed in thought, "Just more evidence of the changes between there and here. Your changes are to mimic the minor differences between the Emrys line of our original world and the Emrys line here."

His wife nodded in agreement, "Sounds likely. You on the other hand never took a heritage test so your changes are more extreme."

She was surprised at the pleased smirk that her husband sported at that, "Care to share what you're so happy about?"

"I'm just pleased that no one is going to comment on how identical I look to the James or Harry Potter of this world. If I'm going to vie for guardianship of my counterpart and free Sirius, if he's innocent here, I'd rather not look like too close of a relation, this way I'm a concerned distant cousin who has returned from my travels to find my family drastically diminished and our affairs in the hands of others."

Whiteclaw looked at him in surprise, "I'm impressed Harry, I think you would have made a good goblin."

"Thank you Whiteclaw."

Looking away from his healer who had gone back to his notes Harry caught sight of the delighted expression on his wife's face but before he could ask her about it she shook her head and mouthed 'Later' to him. Moments later the door into the infirmary opened and Sir Camden entered along with James Butler. Camden quickly moved to Mara's bedside and took her hand, "I'm glad to see you awake niece."

The smile that lit up Mara's face was dazzling and for a moment all three men were stunned; Harry was realising that he'd have to memorise his wife's face all over again and felt a little excitement at the idea of the two of them familiarising themselves with all the changes they'd both gone through. James was just awestruck and had to repress the urge to congratulate Harry on his good fortune, while Camden got a little teary eyed at the resemblance to his late sister and mother, the moment was made all the sweeter for him when she replied, "I'm glad to be awake uncle, so what have we missed?"

James shook himself and patted the briefcase he'd brought with him, "Oh not much just Her Illustrious Majesty issuing Writs of Knighthood to you both and what not."

A low growl came from Sir Camden, "Lose the frivolity Court Sorcerer, Her Majesty is not a topic for jokes."

"Sorry Sir Camden I'm just pleased to see them both awake."

Harry couldn't resist poking the bear a little, "Both awake?! I didn't realise that you'd noticed my state at all. You haven't taken your eyes off my wife since you came in here."

The blush that blossomed across James' face broke his serious façade and Harry let out a deep belly laugh, which doubled when he saw the faint pinkish hue to Mara's cheeks as well. Normally she was so self-assured that she never blushed, he'd have to enjoy this new development until she got comfortable with her new look; knowing his wife he had a week, maybe two at most. Camden however was directing a disapproving look at both men until his niece tugged his hand, "Ignore them uncle, my husband sometimes likes to channel his father and godfather, sadly he lacks finesse but we can't have everything now can we. Tell me what news you have for me."

Deciding to take her advice he settled onto a chair next to her bed and let out a deep breath, "I've gone over your notes about your old world, for the most part things are the same here as there. With a few differences; Mrs Lovegood for instance is still alive here and has agreed to a short-term research partnership with the immature delinquent that came with me."

Both Potters smirked at the mild rebuke and James' reaction to it, clearly wanting to defend himself but not feeling able to at this moment so opting for a self-deprecating smile instead. He grinned at Harry, "I'll be visiting her tomorrow to discuss warding our research to protect it from contamination, competitors, etc. I doubt it'll be hard to slip a couple of alarm and security wards in there without notice."

Harry frowned at him, "Best see if you can talk her into them instead. If she were to examine the wards after you left and noticed unmentioned additions I don't think it'd go down well."

After a brief moment of thought James nodded, "You're probably right. Selene is brilliant and even though she hasn't told me that wards are an area she knows much of I shouldn't really assume that that means she doesn't know anything about them."

A pleased smile crossed Harry's face, "That's more like it. Assuming is what the majority of magic users seem to do and it's a huge part of the current problem with the society, I don't want someone I'm working with to start emulating the bad habits of my adversaries."

Camden looked at Mara in surprise at this exchange but she merely gave him a satisfied smirk, "A lot of people underestimate my husband, I trust it isn't a mistake you'll be making uncle. After all he was trained by the best."

The obvious reference to his counterpart's hand in Harry's actions gave him an odd glow of satisfaction along with the urge to prove himself worthy of the version of himself that his new niece clearly admired a great deal. He shook his head a little and turned back to Mara, "Another change seems to be Dumbledore himself, in your world he had power but didn't really use it, here is a different matter. He holds proxy for not only the Potter seat but a number of houses, the Black seat also being one of them."

Mara spoke before the anger she was sure her husband was feeling could erupt, "How did he manage that?! The Blacks are historically a Dark family, in both worlds, so they wouldn't have been allied with him enough for him to claim proxy."

"As far as we can figure out he somehow had Sirius name him as proxy just before the end of the last war. We haven't been able to find out whether your godfather's counterpart is innocent but I'm inclined to believe he might be, I doubt a secret supporter of Voldemort would have given that much political power to Dumbledore otherwise."

They could all heard the barely contained anger in Harry's voice when he interjected, "If all this is true then it's looking very likely that the old bastard had Sirius thrown in Azkaban on purpose to get him out of the way."

Camden inclined his head, "Indeed, the House of Black holds a lot of sway in the magical political arena, mostly because the members of the house are known to be powerful, relentless and ruthless in pursuing their goals. Which actually leads me nicely into the last bit of differing information I have for you."

"Which is?"

Looking between the two he shrugged, "It is interesting to note that while back in your world the Malfoys were some of Voldemort's strongest supporters, here they have always tended more towards the neutral ground up until the last war."

Sitting forward in interest Mara's eyes sharpened, "Why the sudden change?"

At this point James jumped in with his thoughts as he pulled up a chair for himself next to Sir Camden and Harry, "Well you told us he'd escaped prosecution after the 70's war by claiming to be under the Imperius curse and that part remains true but here it's been proven, somewhat."

Harry didn't like the sound of that, "Somewhat?"

Nodding James finally opened his briefcase and pulled out a couple of folders until he found the one he was looking for and handed it to Harry, "Yes, he was named and taken in for questioning within a week of Voldemort's demise and was examined. Alastor Moody himself stated in his report that Mr Malfoy was under the influence of an imperio so that was enough to get him out of time in Azkaban. No one is sure if that was why he joined up with him in the first place though."

The fog in his head had cleared but Harry still didn't feel up to reading through the file on his lap, looking over at his wife he lifted his eyebrows at her in a silent question. She shrugged, "It's a possibility, but we'll need to sound out the current political climate once we've established ourselves in the wizarding world."

Camden thought he might know what they were thinking of but he still asked to make sure, "Are you thinking of approaching Malfoy for help?"

"Don't worry uncle, while the idea might work with a different version of the family we knew I don't think either of us are able right now to separate the difference in our heads. Our idea is more along the lines of recruiting Sirius Black, if he's innocent, as he's the heir to the Black title."

An appreciative smirk crossed Camden's face, "And Mr Malfoy petitioned the Black family for a wife, which they granted, with provisions of course."

Mara and Harry had matching evil grins on their faces as she answered for both of them, "Of course. So who better to deal with a potential, if reluctant, ally than his wife's cousin, the esteemed Lord Black."

"You're going to have to pull a lot of strings to set that in motion."

Grinning Harry winked at James, "I'm hoping to be all set for the next Wizengamot meeting on Monday, it's high time that we started setting the fox among the chickens."

Camden leaned back in his chair in thought, "That means you only have five days left to prepare."

A soft laugh from Mara drew his attention, "That's more time than he usually has to form a plan of attack. Although I am curious husband about what you intend in order to _set the fox among the chickens_ as you said."

He smiled and shrugged, "If I can distract Dumbledore enough by making him try to figure out my political agenda while setting a few other things in motion in the background we should be able to get Sirius a trail without too much trouble."

Camden blinked in surprise, "You're willing to be the distraction? That seems an unlikely role for you."

Mara threw her love a pleased smile, "Actually uncle it's a role he performs admirably. Harry is very good at being the centre of attention, despite his preferences. It's a good system seeing as I am a fully trained Shadow Hand."

The impressed hum from James was the last word on the topic. Harry eyed the briefcase that his new/old friend had with him and nodded at it, "What's in there?"

A delighted grin appeared on the Court Sorcerer's face and he suddenly looked like a kid on Christmas morning for a moment, "This is for you two. Her Majesty instructed me that if you passed the ritual you were to be presented with a gift to suit the descendant of such a decorated Knight of the Round Table. I've got the deeds to a very nice estate in northern Buckinghamshire in here so that's the start of it."

When he trailed off a bit Harry frowned, "What's the rest of it?"

"After conferring with Chief Ragnok last night Her Majesty has summoned both of you to appear before her at 4 p.m. today in order to receive your Writs of Knighthood in person and undertake the small ceremony to induct you both into the Victorian Order."

Before any of them could continue Whiteclaw returned from wherever he had disappeared to earlier, "If you are well enough to gossip you are well enough to leave. Off with the lot of you."

Harry laughed as Mara sprang out of bed like a cat avoiding water and tossed a shirt at him, "You heard the good goblin husband. Get dressed and let's go make our goodbyes to Chief Ragnok before we return to Buckingham Palace. We don't want to be late for our meeting with the queen now."

Less than ten minutes later Harry found himself on his way to Ragnok's office after exchanging an equally amused goodbye with Whiteclaw, who had invited him for grog the next time he was in Gringotts and had time to spare. The two men were looking at the new Sir Bedwyr in stunned amazement while his wife smiled smirked and strode along confidently with her arm threaded through his. He leaned in to whisper, "What was that about earlier?"

She leaned her head lightly against his shoulder and murmured quietly, "You impressed a goblin, not just any goblin either, Whiteclaw is Gringotts head healer, that is a very well respected position. He and you are on first name basis and he's invited you for drinks in the future. It might not seem like a lot but this is going to raise our standing within the goblin nation and may well lead you to eventually being named Goblin Friend. Going forward with our plans it will be so much easier if the goblins like us more than our opponents."

"I was just making a friend love."

Giving his arm an affection squeeze her smile widened, "I know love and that's why you are wonderful. You didn't do that with the intention of bettering yourself, you just made a friend."

Harry snorted in amusement, "Your mind is nearly constantly on politics isn't it love."

Mara gave him a light bump with her hip and slanted a wicked look at him just as they reached the doors to Ragnok's office, "Not constantly my love. You prove a good distraction at times."

The doors opening to let them enter Ragnok's office cut off any response that he might have been able to come up with and he could feel the smug delight radiating from his wife. He was fairly certain she'd timed that comment to have him a little flustered when he once more came into the Goblin Chief's presence and judging from the look on Ragnok's face it had worked. The proud warrior stood as the four humans entered his office and welcomed them, "Welcome once again Sir Bedwyr and Lady Emrys I am glad to see you are both well again. Although you look somewhat flushed Sir Bedwyr, perhaps some refreshments are in order?"

Unable to help himself Harry grinned, "Only if you are planning to partake yourself Chief Ragnok, as for my current condition you can blame my wife. Our heritage test seems to have alighted a more mischievous streak in her than I was aware of up until now."

A loud laugh erupted from Ragnok as Mara blushed lightly and he waved them to the seats arranged before his desk, "Please sit my friends. Her Majesty expects you shortly but we just enough time to discuss your new holdings."

Before they could get started James butted in, "Chief Ragnok if we are to cover everything that Sir Bedwyr and Lady Emrys now control then I should provide you with copies of the estate that Her Majesty granted them after your meeting last night."

"Of course Ward Master Butler, goblins certainly appreciate efficiency in their dealings."

Papers were spread out across Ragnok's desk and the goblin leader quickly read over them before boiling everything down for the new lord and lady, "Well my friends in addition to the Bedwyr holdings that you were already aware of, you now also control the long stagnant Emrys vaults and a very nice country estate near Northampton. The estate is fairly straight forward with 25 acres of land, most of which is stately gardens but it also boasts a small stable as well, the manor house itself has 20 bedrooms and seems to be in good condition but I think you'll want to invest in a couple of house elves to keep it that way. If you are planning to make it your home I would recommend some specialised wards, they'll have to be carefully laid as the estate is entirely muggle so you don't want the magic causing issues with the electrical lines."

Humming in thought Harry nodded, "It certainly sounds ideal, a good front for hosting political leaders don't you think love?"

Mara gave a small, cold grin, "We most assuredly would like to approach your ward masters for those wards you mention Chief Ragnok, our plans will be making a few people unhappy so some solid goblin wards should deal with any uninvited guests; even if we don't plan to live there full-time."

Matching her grin the goblin leader made a quick note on a piece of parchment before turning to her, "Of course Lady Emrys, and please while we are in private my name is Ragnok, to you and your esteemed husband."

She smiled at him in delight, "I am honoured Ragnok, please feel free to our first names in private also."

Sir Camden and James sat there in shock as the three extended practically familial type greetings and privileges to one another. The two men looked at each other in shock and both resolved to report this to the queen, it would be of great interest to their monarch that her fellow ruler had offered such favour and trust to two of her subjects. They were dragged back into the present conversation when Mara asked the goblin ruler a question none of them had expected, "Ragnok may I ask if you know if Myrddin was a dragon speaker in this realm?"

Everyone in the room blinked in surprise as the goblin sat back in his chair, "It's not something that I know but I have had my records department compile dossiers of both of your family histories for you so if he was I'm sure there will be some mention of it there."

"What are you thinking love?"

She threw her husband and smirk, "Nothing yet, I am just trying to get ahead of my inheritance before it starts to make itself known randomly. You should probably do the same thing too husband, Sir Bedwyr might have had some interesting abilities that you could now possess."

Before he got the chance to respond Ragnok interrupted, "Actually many of our famed goblin battle magics were techniques learned or refined from Sir Bedwyr. He was quite gifted in that regard."

Mara grinned happily, "Sounds like it'll suit you love. And will definitely help in your role as distraction."

Deciding to jump in when he saw the look of confusion cross Ragnok's face briefly Sir Camden tried to clear things up, "My niece and her husband have decided that in order to get things done quietly in the wizarding world they'll need a distraction to draw attention. It seems that Sir Bedwyr is rather apt at that role."

With a nod Ragnok continued as he took in the expressions on the faces of the humans before him, "And his talented wife is of course a Shadow Hand Guard so she is well adapt at getting things _done quietly_ as you say."

Harry grinned and nodded before standing, "Indeed Ragnok, and now we should be going as my wife and I need to clean ourselves up a bit before we present ourselves to Her Majesty. Would you ask your ward masters to compile a list of wards that you think might be appropriate for our new estate, as well as the names of any house elves that might appreciate the work? You may take the fees from the Bedwyr vault to cover any expenses."

Walking around his desk the goblin leader clasped Harry's wrist and grinned viciously, "I'll have all the details sent to you by morning. Until we meet again Harry, may your enemies be crushed beneath your heel and your vaults continue to grow."

Matching the expression on Ragnok's face Harry bowed his head in respect, "You shall have to join myself and Whiteclaw for grog the next time I visit Gringotts Ragnok. May your fortunes expand and your name venerated while your foes crumble to dust and are forgotten to time."


	5. Chapter 5

Harry grit his teeth in frustration as Mara slipped out the door of their suite to go put the fear of _her_ into their potential new lawyer. He understood the reason for not being seen together for now but he thoroughly disliked one of their plans that call for keeping him as an "eligible bachelor" in a bid to gain allies once he publically entered the wizarding world here. He understood how well his wife worked in the shadows but he'd much rather play distraction with her at his side than without. Thankfully it was only one of a number of ideas they had come up with during their brainstorming sessions with Camden and Ragnok. They had to wait for more information before they could decide on the best course of action, and that was only something they could get by dipping their toes into the quagmire of Britain's wizarding underbelly before the next Wizengamot session on Monday, four days away.

A knock at the door dragged him from his thoughts and he opened it to find James there, holding a bottle of swirling amber liquid and a couple of folders, "I thought I'd help distract you while Mara went out."

Unable to resist grinning he waved the man in, "I really hope you've got better taste in whiskey than the other you did."

Shaking off the odd comment James had to resist sticking his tongue out, instead he held up the bottle and smirked, "12 year old Balvenie DoubleWood meet your high standards Sir Bedwyr?"

The recently re-knighted wizard twitched a little, grinned and pointed at the dresser next to the fireplace that held some very nice crystal cut tumblers, "Grab a glass mate."

They sat for a few minutes in silence just savouring the taste of good whiskey and relaxing before Harry sighed, "Thanks for this. It's the first time Mara and I have been apart since we got here and I'm pretty sure I'd be climbing the walls if left to my own devices right now."

"That's what I thought too so of course I had to come. After all I couldn't have you ruined Her Majesty's interior decorations now could I?"

Harry snorted in amusement, "Her steward would have locked me in the dungeon. So what distractions did you bring, besides your illustrious company that is?"

Nudging the folders he'd left on the coffee table James exhaled loudly, "That is all the information I've been able to gather about Sirius Black and Harry Potter, in two very slim folders."

After flicking both folders open Harry barely resisted growling in annoyance as he muttered, "Slim is putting it mildly."

The folder on Sirius was barely three pages long and the one about his counterpart in this world was even less, hardly a full page and most of that was speculation and hearsay. Snapping it shut after reading the line about Dumbledore making sure the last Potter was well cared for he turned his attention to the three pages on Sirius. A summary of his family's business and political connections was neatly rolled into a quick run through of his time in Hogwarts and took up most of the first page. The second page detailed his time as an Auror during the last war, surprisingly he'd been recommended for several honours during his service and had numerous commendations, along with a couple of demarcations for disregarding orders. Considering he'd only served in the Auror corp for less than five years that was seriously impressive. Moving onto the third page was like reading about his godfather all over again, the similarities were disturbing and led him to the conclusion that this version of Sirius was as innocent as his had been.

"He was framed."

James hummed in agreement as he sipped his drink, "Normally I'd want to question him myself after slipping him some truth serum before I'd agree with you but considering how the situation is all but a mirror copy of what happened in your world I think I'd just be wasting valuable time."

Resisting the urge to toss the folder into the lowly burning fire Harry closed it so the words weren't visible and sagged in his chair, "Now that it's pretty much a guarantee that he's innocent I really don't want to wait to get him out of that hellhole."

"Well you're going to have to until you've established yourself. The Wizengamot doesn't meet for another four days and you can't call for a trial or any kind of action until you've been sworn into the body."

"How does that work anyway? I never had reason to find out back home."

The Court Sorcerer shrugged, "Back in the olden days the members would swear on their magic to uphold the laws of the magical realm but considering how things have been for the last few decades and the fact that they haven't lost their magic or died I'd say it's mostly a formality now rather than a solemn promise."

Harry huffed in annoyance, "Politics."

All his friend could do was nod in agreement and they lapsed into silence for a few minutes. After they'd topped up their drinks James shook himself a bit, "Oh! I nearly forgot to tell you, I spoke with Selene Lovegood and she's agreed to alarm wards that will send an alert to us. She wasn't really happy about it but once I pointed out joint research meant we all had to have access to it the idea started to appeal to her."

"If she is anything like the daughter I knew the idea of lost knowledge would be enough of a fright to get her agreement."

Nodding James grinned, "That was definitely the impression I got from her. She is brilliant but does seem to lack basic survival instincts, with regards to herself anyway. The ward array she had in place to keep her daughter safe in case of an accident is kind of awe-inspiring."

Harry laughed into his drink, "That might explain why she married Xeno!"

After sharing grins of amusement they relaxed back into their chairs again. Harry felt good to know that he might have helped, even if only a little, prevent the tragedy that had scarred his Luna so badly from happening again. Life had been harsh on the kind hearted girl in his world and with any luck this version would have the chance to grow beyond the image of _'looniness'_ that had plagued his friend.

James just enjoyed the relaxing silence for a while, it was rare that he got to spend time with someone who just let him breath. Not that he didn't thoroughly enjoy his job but being the Court Sorcerer held a lot of responsibility and led to everyone expecting him to have all the answers, well everyone except for the queen thankfully. He refused to even think about how stressful his life would be if Her Majesty felt he should always know the answer to her questions. The Potters arrival had been shocking but he was ultimately glad to have almost readymade friends suddenly appear who accept his fallible nature and understood he was just another human. It was refreshing and a nearly foreign concept to him these days. His thoughts suddenly turned to how long he had held his position for and suddenly sat up in surprise, "Wait you said we were friends back in your world right?"

Grinning bemusedly Harry nodded, "Yes, I thought we'd covered this?"

"But I look the same. So that means that I was this age when you knew me but you were a few years in the future from our time so how can that be possible?! How can-"

"James stop. You're starting to ramble...and hyperventilate."

Once the red haired wizard had taken a couple of deep breaths to help calm himself Harry spoke, "Mara and I actually spoke about that. We figure that your theory of the wards finding us as close a match to the world we knew holds true. Even though the you from our world had been dead for a few months our memory of you was still very strong, at least mine was."

Before he'd even finished speaking James was shaking his head, "That doesn't make any sense. If I'm such a close copy of the James you knew then I should have the same parents, so in order for me and him to be the same age but at different times would require my entire family tree to be….accelerated, I suppose is the word."

Harry just shook his head, "Why do academics always think magic has to make sense."

Blinking in surprise James just stared at him as Harry spoke, "Magic just is. It's instinct and emotion and hope rolled up into one big ball to make a mockery of physics and common sense and if you attempt to apply logic to it you're just going to give yourself a headache."

"But there's a certain science to magic."

"Some magic, not all of it."

While the confused expression on James' face was amusing Harry didn't let it distract him, "Sure potion making has a level of cause and effect to it that mimics science but really how does tossing animal parts and herbs into a cauldron get you anything other than a stew without magic to add a little, wishful thinking to the mix?"

"Then what about alchemy? Creating a philosophers stone requires precision and skill."

"How do you know?"

James just stared at him for a moment, "What?"

With a cheeky grin Harry winked at him, "The only _known_ creator of a philosophers stone is Nicholas Flamel over six centuries ago. I highly doubt you witnessed the creation process and Mr Flamel is hardly going to give up his secret so for all you know it could have been a complete accident. He could have used nothing more than faith, hope and pixie dust."

He just stared at grinning dark haired man on the other side of the fireplace and gaped, "Did you just seriously paraphrase Peter Pan in a serious academic debate?!"

Sipping his drink imperiously Harry smirked, "Knowledge and inspiration can come from anywhere."

"Or you could just be a big kid."

"That too."

Laughing the pair lapsed into a good natured debate on the nature of magic and it's applications while they established a new friendship for James and rekindled an old one for Harry.

* * *

Mara slipped into Knockturn Alley smoothly and headed to the faded and peeling navy door a little way into the shadowy alley, confirming her destination by the grimy brass name plate next to the door before she knocked briskly twice. After a moment the door opened to admit her and she stepped confidently into the gloomy interior, not bothering to remove her hood just yet. A surprisingly clean, female house elf popped into place before her and bowed, "How can Treble be helping you today Miss?"

Smiling Mara allowed the light to catch her lips as she answered the elf, "I have an appointment with Mr Cauldes today Treble, would you be kind enough to let him know I'm here?"

Her smile was warm and brought a happy agreeable sound from the tiny elf , "Of course Miss, Treble will return in a minute."

As the elf popped away again Mara brought her Shadow Hand persona to the fore, it was easier to deal with lawyers that way she'd found and even the most refined and cold pure blood noble had found her intimidating while like this. Exactly what she was hoping to achieve today, hence her subtly expensive but auster clothing. She hadn't even gotten round to thinking of taking off her gloves when Treble popped back into the hall and squeaked happily at her, "Master Cauldes is ready to see you Miss, if you's be following Treble."

"Of course Treble, thank you."

The elf squeaked again happily and led the way to a small receiving room at the end of the short hall, not what Mara had been expecting; she'd thought that they'd be meeting in an office but it seemed that Mr Cauldes was planning to host her for tea. Well this she could work with too and if he thought that it'd cause her to let her defences down he was in for a surprise. Mr Cauldes himself was also something of a surprise; he was far younger than she'd been expecting, probably not much older than her, with a welcoming smile, dark auburn hair and slightly olive skin that gave him an exotic look and she had a feeling he was used to women falling for his looks and charm. His voice was also smoother than honey and she had to suppress a frown as she felt the magic laced through it, "Welcome my lady, how would you like your tea?"

"Black, please Mister Cauldes." She had to resist the urge to add _like your soul_ but it certainly passed through her mind as she smoothed down the rich black velvet of her long skirt.

"Please my lady feel free to call me Antonio, Mister Cauldes makes me feel old."

"Let's hold off on such familiarity until we've come to a suitable arrangement Mr Cauldes, after all, we've only just met."

Her cool tone set him aback slightly and he blinked, this appointment was clearly not going to be as easy as he had first thought. When an acquaintance of his from the nobility had approached him with this offer he'd assumed that it was for some rich pure blood lady who was looking for grounds to escape, or possibly re-arrange, a marriage. It wasn't uncommon for purebloods to change the original tenants of their union in light of developing circumstances. Such cases usually provided him with ample opportunities for flirting when a jilted wife came to his door. Clearly this was not such a time and he would have to adjust quickly, with the first thing being to drop the _honey charm_ from his voice that his father had taught him before he'd gone to Hogwarts.

"My apologies my lady, how would you prefer to be addressed?"

The tenseness in her shoulders eased and she nodded regally at him when his naturally smooth voice addressed her, Antonio had to swallow slightly in worry, whoever this woman was she was enough in tune with ambient magic that she could spot any adjustments easily. His father had warned him that if a client like that ever came to him to treat them with extra courtesy and caution.

"My lady is acceptable for now Mister Cauldes."

The cultured tones of her voice sent irrational shivers of fear up his spine and he began to regret agreeing to the meeting his friend had set up; James was going to owe him one hell of an apology for dumping him in this situation without warning. Motioning to the tea set he had prepared next to an enchanted window that showed a beautiful view of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris he waited for his guest to settle gracefully into her chair before he took his own seat across from her and poured their tea carefully. He was very grateful that his hands didn't shake while lifting the china teapot but by the time he had handed off her cup and added a healthy dollop of cream to his own he felt a bit more settled, "So my lady, how may I be of assistance to you?"

Mara inhaled the steam rising from her teacup, subtly checked for any additions that might impair her senses and was pleased to find none. Even though normally she liked milk and sugar in her tea they had a tendency to mask certain scents so in situations like this black tea was better. After taking a sip, mostly to help calm her host some more, she started to test the waters, "I've only recently returned to England, I was led to believe that you were a suitable representative for my family's interests."

A small, wry smirk passed over Antonio's lips, "James certainly has an interesting way of doing things doesn't he?"

She merely hummed softly in agreement but offered nothing in response to the obvious enquiry, instead Mara ran a still gloved finger over the rim of teacup and spoke in a somewhat whimsical voice, "Things are not as they should be for my family, I have need of someone who is capable of righting this unbearable situation."

Waiting a beat before looking at the lawyer across from her who was gripping his teacup like a lifeline she used an ancient druid trick to cause the light to catch her teeth and make them appear sharper, "Is that someone you Antonio?"

His heart stuttered in fear for a moment before he reassured himself with the knowledge that James couldn't be that annoyed with him to send someone who'd murder him horribly at the first meeting. He could help the thought that she might do so in their second meeting though. "That depends on your family's needs my lady."

With a quick turn of her wrist reminiscent of a stage magician's flair she used a simple, silent wandless _Finite_ to cancel the shrinking spell she'd placed on the file tucked into a fold in her glove and held it out to him. From the expression on her host's face he hadn't caught how she'd done it and seemed to be under the impression she'd conjured the file. A simple misdirection but the more fear of her ruthlessness and power she put into him now the less likely he was to sell her out when things started to heat up. Her husband had been a little uncomfortable with her plan to deal with him as it reminded him a little bit too much of how Voldemort operated but they were on a tight schedule, she needed to lock down Antonio's services and loyalty quickly, she could work on likability at a later date. Or she could just send Harry at some point, he was far more pleasant than her. Impressed that the lawyer had only minimal shakes in his hand she allowed some of the harshness to ease from her voice and posture, "That file will only open if you agree to take us on as clients, with the level of trust and confidentiality that entails. In it you will find a brief outline of who we are and what we require of your services."

As she stood she smiled when Treble reappeared to show her the wait out, "You can reach me through James with your answer but I do need it by tomorrow afternoon. If you choose to pass on us as clients I will need time to find another lawyer and we are on a tight schedule."

Before she finished turned for the door Antonio's voice broke the silence, "One question my lady. How do you know James?"

Letting the hood of her cloak finally fall she grinned back at him impishly, "He's a dear dear friend of course."

Antonio sat there stunned as the silver haired goddess followed Treble out of the room. He had never met someone like her before, not only was she stunning with liquid silver hair and eyes but that wicked grin as she left was completely at odds with her entire persona up until that point. As he stared at the file in his hand he contemplated what kind of problems would require his services, the fact that James set up the meeting meant she probably shared his view of the stagnant quagmire that the wizarding world was here in Britain so that shouldn't be an issue. The only thing stopping him was the fear she'd managed to induce during their meeting, was it worth possibly dealing with that again to figure out the mystery laid before him?

Down the street Mara smirked in the shade of her cloak's hood as she felt the charms on the file release. It seemed they had their lawyer.

* * *

The following morning Albus Dumbledore smiled as he pursued his morning post. The satisfaction of dividing up the letters for Supreme Mugwump, Chief Warlock and Hogwarts Headmaster into three piles was a small joy that he relished in. The people of the wizarding world looked to him to guide them and steer them towards the right course, as was only right. He'd known for many decades that known matched his intelligence and that it was his lot in life to make sure that others followed the paths that suited them. Sighing he privately admitted that not everyone had agreed with him, the worst being Tom Riddle but such was life and overall he had done a very good job of keeping peace within the wizarding world.

After dealing with the letters for the Supreme Mugwump he turned his attention to his Wizengamot correspondence leaving any owl post for Hogwarts until later. That pile offered the least satisfaction as many just wished to complain to so after skimming through it he would often pass it onto his Deputy, Minerva to deal with. There was the usual summary of the going ons of the Ministry of Magic, the pathetic whimpering of the Minister himself asking for advice and just a few letters of real interest to him. Among them was a particularly intriguing letter from Mr Antonio Cauldes, on suitably expense embossed parchment, stating the wish of his client to present themselves to the Wizengamot at the next meeting and petition to represent their family seat. The tone was polite, measured and hinted at the upper echelons of society. Truly intriguing to his well honed mind.

Picking up a delightfully colourful and gilded peacock tail feather quill, his penchant for exotic quills was exactly why he'd resisted allowing his professors from telling their students to use fountain pens, how anyone could prefer the hard feel of a pen to a quill was beyond him. Carefully he wrote a reply granting the petition and cautiously welcoming Mr Cauldes client to the august body, along with hinting at the desire to meet them prior to the Wizengamot session to discuss their return. Once he was done he read through the reply letter and nodded, pleased with how well he managed to sound even through a written medium.

He clicked his fingers and a house elf appeared, one whose name he couldn't remember but that didn't phase him, "Would you be kind enough to take this letter to the owlery my friend and have one of the owls deliver it please?"

The giddy creature beamed at him and took the letter carefully, "Bibsy will do as you asked Headsy-sir." Sighing as the elf popped away Albus pinched the bridge of his nose to stop the headache that the excitable being's voice had induced. With a put upon sigh he popped one of his lemon drops into his mouth and sighed in contentment as the pain eased. When it had subsided fully he allowed himself to contemplate who the newest Wizengamot member might be, it would have to be one of the idle seats but there was a number of them from the last war. A little bit of excitement at the idea of a new puzzle thrilled through him and he grinned, the next Wizengamot meeting on Monday would be very interesting.


	6. Chapter 6

Antonio took a deep breath as he waited to step through the floo to the ministry, today was going to be a circus; hopefully with him and his client as the ringmasters. Since 'Lady Silver', as he'd dubbed her in his head (seeing as no one had bothered to share her name with him), had appeared in his offices four days ago life had been a whirlwind of activity. There had been no need to have any contact with the Chief Warlock bar a suitably polite but neutral letter, thankfully. However between filling the appropriate petition papers for the Wizengamot without giving away his client's name and subtly sounding out members of the body to find out their view on a new player joining their elite game of politics he'd been run off his feet, and loving every minute.

With a sharp mind that had been educated in the Magical Academy of Milan he'd found taking over his father's offices in London a tad dull in comparison to the dealings of the Italian Families that he had cut his legal teeth on at the start of his career. Rome was a veritable hotbed of activity, not all of it legal, and made the "shady dealings" of the British wizarding upper class look juvenile and petty. The whole _pure blood_ issue at the heart of their disagreements was pathetically boring to the more worldly lawyer and while there was a few beauties among them he usually preferred to venture into Muggle London for romance.

However since being introduced to Sir Bedwyr by James the day after he'd agreed to take on his mystery client he'd been having the most fun since he'd left the Mediterranean. His client insisted that he call him Harold, or Harry for short, and was excited at the prospect of turning the British wizarding world on its head. Between his deep green eyes, black silky hair and the hints of light blue tattoos on his pale skin poking out of the collar of his expensive, high collared, dark emerald green silk shirt he was an imposing figure that exuded power effortlessly. They shared a wicked sense of humour along with a similar view of the current climate in Britain, there had been a couple of disturbing observations made by the knight that the lawyer had found shockingly on point and freaky; especially considering that he had only just returned to the UK, according to his story that is.

Of course Antonio wasn't inclined to believe that the powerful knight was as new to the country as he claimed but as it had no bearing on him representing the esteemed Sir Bedwyr in the wizarding world he was in no hurry to push the issue. If certain elements with their plans proved difficult he might revisit Harry's story but hopefully there was enough of a shock and awe effect to their actions that would make that unnecessary. After all Bedwyr was a name that turned heads and made even the most stuck up pure blood sit up and take notice, in more than just Britain. Harry's ancestors had established an enduring reputation for the family in quite a few countries besides their homeland, France and Italy in particular adored the family when they had been there. He himself was honoured to work with the current holder of the title and was very happy that Harry seemed to embody the very best of the stories he had heard about the family.

"Knut for your thoughts?"

The softly spoken question brought Antonio back to the present and he grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, wool gathering."

A smirk passed over Harry's lips, "Anything good pop up?"

Grinning wickedly Antonio had to resist twitching his nose like a witch he'd seen in an old non-magical show on the television, "The look on Dumbledore's face is going to be priceless. I hope the press are there in force today."

Harry matched his grin as the clock ticked over to ten o'clock and began to chime the hour, "I'm sure they will be. After all, somehow word leaked of a new Wizengamot lord taking his seat today, they wouldn't want to miss that."

"You called them?"

"I despise them, but my wife often finds the most surprising uses for undesirable elements."

"You still haven't told me her name."

"I haven't have I. I must be getting old."

With that Harry tossed some floo powder into the flames and stepped through to the Bedwyr Wizengamot chambers with a wink. Antonio snickered while he had a moment alone before mumbling, "The old man is going to _hate_ him" and following Harry through the flames.

* * *

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sat on his throne in the Wizengamot chamber surveying his domain, of course he would never be silly enough to use those phrases aloud, people liked to believe they were the masters of their own fates but really he couldn't name a single person besides himself who actually had that much power over their life. It was a comforting feeling and the very reason why he had succeeded where dear Gellert, and indeed young Mr Riddle as well, had failed. Trying to lead through fear never worked, people would always rise up against you eventually, but make yourself an irreplaceable beacon of hope and wisdom and they will willingly submit themselves to your better judgement. At the moment the only real threat to his position was Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, but between keeping him ignorant of his heritage and responsibilities and those Boy Who Lived adventure books he was sure the child would fail and become less of a threat to his position.

Looking around he tried to pick out the new lord who would be petitioned to join the Wizengamot today but no one stood out to him, however there was a large number of spectators in the public gallery so perhaps the man he was looking for was simply hidden in the masses for now. He had to repress a smirk as the idle thought of the new lord being too shy to sit in front of the crowd as was the norm. When his eyes flitted over the gallery set aside for the press he could feel his lips thin slightly but managed to catch it before anyone noticed, Rita Skeeter was sitting front and centre of the gossip mongering crew that represented The Daily Prophet and the Wizarding Wireless News. There also seemed to be a number of foreigners mixed through the press, which was surprising as they would usually just cover the International Wizarding Conference meetings in Vienna.

It only took him a moment to come to the conclusion that someone must have let slip about a new Wizengamot lord making his debut today. He didn't like allowing the press in to view the Wizengamot meetings but unfortunately there was no grounds for barring them from the proceedings. Moving on from the vultures poised with their quills he spotted young Mr Antonio Caudles waiting by the wall that contained the entrances to the higher ranking Wizengamot lords private suites. " _So his client isn't just some random family head."_ It certainly narrowed down the potential list of new lords but there was no real time to consider it properly now, such a shame that his subtle request for a private meeting had been unnoticed, he would have liked to form his impressions of the new lord in private.

As the ornate golden clock on the wall above the large rune engraved entrance doors chimed the hour Albus nodded to the Aurors standing and they sealed the doors for the session. Tapping his gilded gavel onto his bench he smiled at the sound of it reverberating around the hall, "This session of the Wizengamot is now open. Before we move onto new business is there any issues from our last session that still need discussion?"

A few members wished to discuss a couple of inane topics but thankfully no one had any real interest in rehashing old news with so many members of the public and press watching so it was only fifteen minutes before everything was settled. With a genial wave of his hand Albus nodded to the scribe sitting below his raised dais, "All notes and transcripts from our last meeting and the start of this session will be filed together in the scribe's office for public perusal at the end of this meeting. Now we may move onto items of note for today, first thing on our agenda is the swearing in of a new member to our ranks. Would the petitioner please come forward."

There was a soft murmuring as Mr Caudles walked up to the scribe's desk and handed over a stack of parchment before turning and striding confidently to the centre of the circular floor. He gave a slight bow that encompassed the Wizengamot and launched into a slightly more elaborate but still traditional speech, "My Lords and Ladies of this esteemed body I am here today to facilitate the introduction of one of your fellow Lords who is but recently returned to our shores. May I humbly present today's petitioner for his family seat, Sir Bedwyr."

Whispers immediately sprang to life and Albus felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck him dumb as one of the doors to the private suites opened and a tall, imposing man strode into the Wizengamot chamber. Unlike the majority of lords present Sir Bedwyr had forgone the traditional maroon and gold robes, instead he cut a striking figure in black trousers, a deep emerald green shirt and close cut black jacket with silver trim. His black wavy hair was pulled back into a low ponytail and held in place with a thin strip of leather, a few strands did escape though to brush his features and likely set many hearts racing when he smiled briefly at Mr Caudles. The noise from the public gallery increased as he performed an almost military style bow to assembled Wizengamot members.

The dashing Sir Bedwyr had a voice that carried a softly commanding tone, however Albus was certain that softness would disappear quickly if circumstances dictated, "My Lords and Ladies of the Wizengamot, long has my family been absent from it's home. I humbly request that you allow me the opportunity to honour my family seat on this august body as many of my ancestors before me have done."

Albus glanced about at his domain and grew concerned with the amount of considering looks being directed at its newest member. There were no grounds for him to deny Sir Bedwyr's petition, though he dearly wished to; unlike most of his fellow Wizengamot members Albus was aware that one could only hold the title of Sir Bedwyr if they proved worthy of it by the family's standards. It was very unlikely that the newest lord would be willing to follow his lead on his issues, the Bedwyr family had been notoriously independent. One stern face gave him hope and Albus motioned for the Lady Dowager, Augusta Longbottom to speak.

Lady Longbottom stood slowly, a statement of power rather than a sign of old age and stared imperiously down at the two men standing calmly in the centre of the floor, "As you have said Sir Bedwyr, your family has been absent for many a year. Why do you return now?"

It wasn't hard to hear the emphasis on the last word of her question and Albus was delighted to see many eyes narrow slightly in confusion or thought. The unspoken question hung heavy in the air _Where were you when we needed help?_ Suddenly the Bedwyr reputation looked to fall a little in the public's eyes.

Instead of shifting nervously or dropping his eyes in shame as most would have Sir Bedwyr raised an eyebrow at the murmurings beginning to happen about him before focusing his intense stare on Augusta, "Thank you for your question Lady Dowager Longbottom, as to the answer all I can say is that I was finally able to return to the home of my family. Many things are not for public consumption but know my estimated Lady that I have no intention of skirting my family responsibilities in any way."

A long moment passed as Lady Longbottom evaluated the man before her and one would think that the entire assembly was holding its breath in anticipation of her answer. After a seeming eternity one of the sternest women in society cracked the faintest of smiles and nodded her head towards him, "In that case Sir Bedwyr allow me to be the first to welcome you to our ranks and I look forward to working with you in the future."

Several longing sighs were heard along with the furious clicking of cameras as Sir Bedwyr flashed a dashing smile at the grey haired Wizengamot Lady and bowed elegantly to her, "My dearest Lady, please do me the honour of addressing me by my given name. To you Lady Longbottom I am Harold."

And with that Sir Bedwyr's place within the Wizengamot was sealed, with not a single thing that Albus could do about it despite being the Chief Warlock. Lady Longbottom simply held too much sway after the tragedy that befell her son and daughter-in-law at the end of the war and no one felt this was important enough of an issue for them to lock horns with her. Waving his hand magnanimously Albus pasted a broad smile onto his face, "The petition has been heard and received with joy. We welcome you Sir Bedwyr to our noble governing body and bid you to uphold the laws of this land with honour."

Bowing once more Sir Bedwyr straightened up and instead of walking directly to his family seat as most did he grinned cheekily up at Albus before speaking, "By honour and magic I pledge to uphold the tenets of magic and vow to strive towards what is best for the magical realm. So mote it be."

A deep tone reverberated around the Wizengamot chamber and every member felt it in their bones, it was a shiver that passed through their core and raised some members hearts as though they just heard phoenix song, while others fought to hide the terrifyingly cold shudder that rattled through their veins. Albus was just one of a few who felt a modicum of both sensations and had to fight to keep his smile in place as Sir Bedwyr finally headed for his seat with his lawyer in tow.

It took the members of the Wizengamot a while to shake off what they had just experienced and while many were anxious to question their newest member on what he had just done they were all acutely aware of the general public and press in attendance today. Such questions would have to be broached in private at a later time.

The meeting finally got back on track and Albus tried to pay attention to the list of minor issues that needed to be dealt with, thankfully no new laws were up for debate today as he was mightily distracted. Between watching Sir Bedwyr exchanging notes with Antonio Cauldes and observing the others members of the Wizengamot doing the same he wasn't sure he'd be able to properly lead a debate right now. He was also studiously ignoring the fact that most of the public gallery was straining to try and see into the Bedwyr family box. The simple fact that his family was old enough, and prestigious enough to own one of the twelve family boxes was an immediate feather in his cap.

Albus had to figure out a way to get him to understand and accept his vision for their world, he was the only one who could understand what needed to be done for the greater good of the wizarding world and he was sure that given the opportunity he could convince the young Bedwyr of that. By the time the session came to an end the Chief Warlock had once again managed to convince himself of his own superior intellect and abilities, now he just needed a private meeting young Harold. As he dismissed the Wizengamot members he attempted to approach the Bedwyr seat but found that many others also had that idea.

Watching from nearby Albus had to admire the smooth way that the newest member of the Wizengamot avoided committing to any alliances and especially the way he managed to neatly and briskly sidestep the more forward flirting of some individuals. Lady Ya'bi Zanibi in particular was trying to work her own "special" branch of magic but having little luck, to his surprise. Even though he didn't find it appealing himself even Albus could admit that Lady Zanibi was a stunningly beautiful woman. Yet despite her attempts to subtly invade Sir Bedwyr's personal space the new lord calmly managed to keep her at a respectable arm's length while continuing a polite conversation with the people gathered around him.

Before Albus got the opportunity to intervene and gain some gratitude from the young lord for helping him escape from the undeterred widow Mr Cauldes returned with Augusta Longbottom beside him and she wasted no time in making herself known, "Ah Harold, having fun?"

Albus could only watch as Sir Bedwyr expertly slipped out of the grasp of Lady Zanibi and moved to kiss the older woman's hand, "Lady Longbottom my enjoyment of the day is much improved with your company. Would you do me the honour of joining me for afternoon tea? I wish to personally thank you for making me welcome today."

The pair moved away from the group and the Chief Warlock could only watch awed as not one person appeared miffed by their sudden departure, except perhaps for Lady Zanibi who had a small pout on her beautiful face before she too shrugged and moved away herself. As he spoke with some other Wizengamot lords Albus had to wonder both at the social skill of his domains newest member and whether said man might have more in common with him than initially thought.


End file.
